BY CALEB DANILOFF MORE than bread ALONE LAW ALUM HELPS START the first book club FOR THE HOMELESS 46 BOSTONIA Winter–Spring 2011 222-512-51 BBostoniaWinter11_03.inddostoniaWinter11_03.indd 4646 22/4/11/4/11 22:29:29 PPMM In November 2007, Resnik and Day had met at downtown missions and Boston lawyer Peter some months earlier on Boston outreach programs. Resnik was driving Common, but a friendship “I’d wake up around 5:30 or was taking shape in that car, a 6,” recalls Day. “McDonald’s his client Robert relationship that would yield opened at 6 and if we were still Day to a courthouse something neither man could asleep, the overnight janitor in western Massa- have anticipated, a literary or counter lady would make chusetts. It was pro movement of sorts: book clubs sure we were up. We’d use the bono work. Day was for the homeless. facilities, get a cup of coffee, stay there a little bit. Then I’d a homeless veteran THE HOMELESS VETERAN go to the back of the Visitors sleeping in a door- One of six kids, Day grew up in Center on the Common, saying way on Tremont Woburn, Mass., and attended hi to everybody, striking up Street. Resnik was Catholic school. His dad was an conversations, getting to know helping him clear up auto parts salesman, his mom a people.” housewife. Except for a six-and- The Boston Common is an old traffic ticket a-half-year army stint, part of it a popular hangout for the standing in the way stationed in Germany, he’s called homeless, with its shady greens of public housing. As the Boston area home all his life. and benches and proximity the wind-stripped After his discharge, Day worked to several churches, the busy in local warehouses and as a Park Street T station, and landscape raced courier driver. But in his early generous tourists seeking by outside and the 40s, he lost his receiving and out the Freedom Trail and pair got to talking handling job at a label company the Swan Boats. Members of about Thanksgiving, in Everett. It didn’t take long to the homeless community can Resnik felt the dis- fall behind on his rent. receive outdoor Communion “I kinda blew through my every Sunday afternoon by tance between him savings account,” he says, the Brewer Fountain. Each and Day shrink. his blunt face capped by thin morning, Day greeted visitors “Turkey soup was blondish-gray hair. “I’m getting and fellow Bostonians with a a common element to the age where it’s hard to get smile and a hello—“stemming,” employment. They’re looking as it’s known. Although Day says in both our fami- for younger people. And now he never shook a cup or held a lies,” recalls Resnik with the economy the way it cardboard sign. (LAW’70). “So is . .” “But you’d know that’s what many parts of Rob’s Day bedded down in city I’d be doing,” he says. “I wouldn’t life seemed so nor- shelters, including the Pine do it all day, maybe two or three Street Inn, Boston’s largest hours in the morning. I’d be mal. He was in the shelter, and then moved to happy if I got money for coffee army a number of the street, which he found and tobacco. That’s how I met years and served less restrictive. For many Peter.” in Europe. He was homeless, shelters can be off- aware of what was putting because of strict rules, THE LAWYER crowding, and occasional visits For years, Resnik, a tall, unas- going on in the city, by police, warrants and photos suming civil litigation defense in politics, in sports, in hand. Even in winter, Day attorney, had been walking and literature.” curled up in a sleeping bag from his Back Bay condo to his in the doorway of the Army State Street law firm, McDer- Recruiting Station, on Tremont mott Will & Emery. He made a 9 When Peter Resnik, a civil Street near the McDonald’s, nice living trying high-profile litigation defense attorney, with his friend Chris. On colder product liability cases, mostly had time to kill, he took the days, they found warmth in representing manufacturers long way home through the Boston Common. That’s church pews, public libraries, of pharmaceuticals, medical where he ran into Robert Day, and big-chain bookstores. For devices, and biotech products. a homeless veteran with a the next six years, the days bled When he had extra time, he took keen interest in literature. into one another, broken up the long way home through the by occasional volunteer gigs Common. PHOTOGRAPHS BY VERNON DOUCETTE Winter–Spring 2011 BOSTONIA 47 222-512-51 BBostoniaWinter11_03.inddostoniaWinter11_03.indd 4747 22/4/11/4/11 22:18:18 PPMM After losing his job at a label company in Everett and falling behind on rent, Robert Day ended up on the street. Over the last two years, members of the book club, including Resnik (left photo) and (right photo, from left) Ned Carleton, Day, and Damien Moye, have read best sellers such as Three Cups of Tea and The Help. “I’d see homeless people and I’d the weather or sports, and eventually activities—that keep lives pinned safe- walk by them,” Resnik says, sitting in life on the streets. One day, he ribbed ly in place also create a sense of blur. his high-rise office, the glass windows Chris about his New York Giants Those standing still, cold, vulnerable, framing a sweeping scene of the Com- jacket. tend to dwell in our margins and blind mon and Back Bay, the Charles River “I kidded him, ‘You’re brave to be spots. To see others, we need their def- rolling toward the Atlantic. “Some- wearing that jacket on Boston Com- initions, a common link. When Day times I’d give people something, some- mon.’ And Chris said, ‘Where I get my and Chris invited Resnik to a gospel- times I wouldn’t. I had no meaningful clothes, this isn’t a New York Giants country concert in Copley Square, interactions.” jacket. It’s a warm jacket.” where they were volunteering as Resnik’s path took him past the spot That exchange burrowed in Resnik’s ushers, Resnik said he’d be there. Chris and Rob had staked out, and he mind. Depending on a person’s circum- “It was really nice,” Resnik says. returned their hellos. The exchange stances, he realized, the same reality “After, my wife and I walked home. became routine, the door cracking a can carry radically different meanings. It was a cold day and we had this little wider each time. Little by little, That the centrifugal forces—jobs, edu- uncomfortable feeling: we were going Resnik ventured in, stopping to discuss cation, health insurance, family, leisure back to our warm condominium and 48 BOSTONIA Winter–Spring 2011 222-512-51 BBostoniaWinter11_03.inddostoniaWinter11_03.indd 4848 22/4/11/4/11 22:19:19 PPMM When he heard the idea for a book club for the homeless, Episcopal deacon Ron Tibbetts was skeptical. “To be perfectly frank, my first response was, ‘A what?’” those guys were going back to sleep yesteryear’s hard times and today’s. difficult because they’re meaningless. on the street. I decided to see about “When I finished it, Peter said, They’re empty. They’re boring.” helping them get housing.” ‘What’d you do with the book?’” Day When Resnik wondered aloud As the men spent more time recalls, with a raspy chuckle. “I said, whether members of the homeless together, talk sometimes turned to ‘I gave it to that guy over there.’ Then community might be interested in books. Resnik, who had majored in Peter gave me The Kite Runner and starting a book club on the Common, English at Yale, had just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns, and he maybe with lunches, Day took to Water for Elephants, a 2006 novel noticed I gave those books out after I’d the idea right away. But he waved about a nursing home resident recol- finished them, too.” off Resnik’s suggestion of outdoor lecting his Depression-era days in a A lightbulb went on. meetings with meals. He knew folks traveling circus. Resnik loved the “What I didn’t understand then is would show up for food, not literary story and loaned the book to Day, that being homeless is a very isolating conversation. Plus, the cold was who also took to it. The two men experience,” Resnik says. “As hard as coming. Day sought out an outreach talked about the characters, the dif- the nights are, being cold, sleeping worker he knew for advice, an Epis- ferences, and similarities, between in an alley or a shelter, the days are copal deacon named Ron Tibbetts. Winter–Spring 2011 BOSTONIA 49 222-512-51 BBostoniaWinter11_03.inddostoniaWinter11_03.indd 4949 22/4/11/4/11 22:19:19 PPMM THE DEACON ness, which might take away everything personal stories, a place of connection. In a former life, Tibbetts, a Norfolk, they have, including work opportuni- All that we heard in the aging gentle- Mass., native, was a construction ties. The economy plays a significant man in Water for Elephants, we were worker and an electrician, but a 1990 role. There are too many reasons to able to hear in Tim. So that really car accident left him with 27 stress put a good definition on why people solidified our first book and people fractures in his back, ligament damage are homeless.” got enthusiastic.” to his knee, and temporary brain Tibbetts, an engaging 57-year-old At first Tibbetts worried about damage.