BROWN DEER, Wis. — This week marks Homelessness Awareness Week throughout the Greater Milwaukee area.
Brown Deer resident Marianne O'Connor experienced her son go through a mental illness that led him to be homeless. She hopes her message of empathy will help locals think twice before judging our homeless population.
"My kids will kill me but Eric was my most compassionate," said O'Connor.
Eric Bach was O'Connor's second child of four. He introduced her to the Mequon Nature Preserve. He volunteered and found a love for all things outdoors.
"Eric was a normal kid growing up, very smart, very creative, really liked nature, and loved his family," O'Connor shared.
He went on to attend school at UW-Madison and returned home to Brown Deer to figure out a career.
"He did work for a nonprofit in downtown Milwaukee where I also worked," O'Connor said. "He worked feeding the hungry and homeless and did quite well at that."
But O'Connor started to notice a shift in her son.
"He would tell me, you know, there were cameras in my home and if I would say that's ridiculous, Eric, he would say, you just don't get it," she shared. "It started becoming more and more aware that he was not well."
In his early 20s, doctors diagnosed Eric with paranoid schizophrenia.
"At that point, his disease progressed to the point where I told him he couldn't be at home anymore if he didn't go get help and he chose then to move to Seattle," O'Connor said.
In Seattle, Eric was homeless. His mom says he found comfort and peace sleeping in forests up and down the west coast. Every few weeks, O'Connor offered her son $50 in exchange for a phone call.
"I'd always say, 'Eric wait now, I want you to know that if you want to go to a hospital and get help, I will be there tomorrow morning. I will stay there as long as you need me.' He would always respond saying, 'I don't know why you always say that to me, I'm fine. I'm not sick.'"
She last saw her son right before the pandemic in Eureka, California.
"I had gone out with my sister and we had searched for Eric and we found him and prior to finding him, I had gone and bought him new shoes," O'Connor said. "So when I read people saying well, how did he get new shoes? Look at that guy, he's got new shoes. I think yeah, Eric had new shoes too when I bought those for him... and those are the same shoes they took off his body when they brought him into the hospital."
Eric died on Sept. 24 at the age of 33.
"There is peace in knowing that he is at peace," O'Connor said.
Eric's obituary circulated throughout Milwaukee, reminding people of the humanity and dignity that is often forgotten when encountering any individual who is homeless.
"Lose the assumption that because somebody is asking for money, they are somehow evil," O'Connor said.
Since then, the Mequon Nature Preserve says it received the highest amount of donations ever and plans to memorialize Eric by planting a grove of trees where he once volunteers.
"Whenever you walk through here think about that, think about people, think about nature and how important it is to our well-being."
