What it takes to rebuild a life in Wausau
We follow Wausau returnee Ricky Reeves as he rebuilds his life from a backpack
I sat down with Ricky Reeves and Malibu Springer on a Wednesday night at Tri-City Restaurant in Schofield.
Reeves had an interesting journey getting to that meeting. And along the way, he had a lot of help from Springer.
A number of years ago, my late coworker Pat Peckham wrote a series of stories about a man he called Homeless Ken. The story series was about Peckham’s attempts to help Ken out of homelessness and into a stable situation. He documented Ken’s journey through a series of stories.
Springer, a long-time salesperson at City Pages, told me about Reeves. She was attempting to do the same for him after a family friend put them in contact.
Returning to Wausau
Reeves came to Wausau with nothing but a backpack of clothing. He had some major medical issues in South Carolina where he lived. Reeves had MRSA, pneumonia and other medical challenges that attacked his lungs and skeletal system. He was in medically induced comas three times and was even clinically dead for five minutes.
