-Desmond Walker, a prominent visitor to the Central Library, passed away at his library computer on Tuesday. He was 43. A librarian noticed he wasn’t breathing when she went to tell him that the library would be closing in 15 minutes.
Mr. Walker, a local homeless man who people described as both quiet and easy to forget, had been known to sit for hours at a time in front of the public computer terminals, mainly using the popular social networking site Facebook.
“I talked to him last week about his plans for the future, and he seemed to have some pretty interesting prospects,” recalled Darren Winters, a volunteer at the library. “He told me that he’d been pretty wrapped in the mafia lifestyle for a while, and made it pretty far before moving on to more wholesome activities.”
Mr. Walker would often regale people seated next to him with his exploits, which according to some have spanned from a hired thug to his most recent job as the owner of an online café.
“The first time I met the guy we was talking about how he quit the mob so he could work on his farm full time,” remembers Leslie Delacroix, a retiree who frequents the library. “He was really proud about all of the gifts he gave his neighbors, usually when they didn’t ask for or even want them."
Last Tuesday, a virtual lifetime of digital achievements was extinguished when Desmond Walker somehow forgot to eat for what was apparently well over a week. He was so wrapped up in making the animated characters on his computer screen happy, that this peaceful benefactor expired doing what he loved doing best: making people who may or may not exist happy in their world.
No comments:
Post a Comment
thank you