BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Ken Hartel hugs his deceased friend Billie Rodatz.
(Ryan Miller photo)
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A minister once told her, Luonna Hartel said to a room filled with mmourners, that people who suffer most in this world know greater happiness in heaven.
"If this is the case, then Billie is a wealthy man." Then Mrs. Hartel folded her notes, swallowed hard and walked away from the casket of the homeless man her family had befriended.
Mrs. Hartel and her husband, Ken Hartel, and three of their four children were among two dozen mourners Thursday night at a service for Billie James Rodatz Jr., 38. He died Aug. 6 in Unity Court Nursing Home in Bond Hill and was buried Friday in St. Joseph Old Cemetery in Price Hill.
Mr. Rodatz once lived under an overpass in Mount Healthy. That's where Ken Hartel saw him huddled beneath blankets on a cold, rainy autumn afternoon in 1996. That day, Mr. Hartel invited Mr. Rodatz into the family's Colerain Township home, where he stayed for a month.
"He was down and out, and I was in a position to help him, so I did what I could," Mr. Hartel said. "It makes me feel good to help people." An auto accident in 1997 left Mr. Rodatz paralyzed from the neck down, and even though he regained use of his arms, he remained institutionalized with a terminal blood disease, myelofibrosis, which caused his death.
In the Hartels, Mr. Rodatz found the family he had lost. Even after the car accident, they stayed in touch. Mr. Hartel bought Mr. Rodatz a television, cordless telephone and refrigerator for his nursing home room.
And when he died, the Hartels made sure Mr. Rodatz had a funeral fit for a family member. But to their surprise, as Ken and Luonna Hartel stitched together the fragments of this man's life, they found that Mr. Rodatz had a network of friends and was drawing people to him still, even in death.
Thursday night, these disparate groups of people came together to mark the passing of a man who would have otherwise left this world largely unnoticed.
Mourners came from Unity Court. R.N. Supervisor Alicia Lattimore, 26, who reported Mr. Rodatz's death to the coroner, had the idea to give him a funeral.
"He had suffered so much," she said. "I couldn't see him not having a proper goodbye."
Ms. Lattimore eulogized Mr. Rodatz with two poems, including "Footprints in the Sand." Ms. Lattimore, who brought her grandfather and fiance with her, dedicated "When I Must Leave You" to Mr. Rodatz's two children.
" "Never, never be afraid to die - for on resurrection morn - I'll be waiting for you in the sky,' " she read through tears before hurrying away from the podium.
Mourners came from Franciscan Hospital-Mount Airy Campus. "He kind of found us," said Joan Steiner, a clinical nurse specialist who knew Mr. Rodatz for a year. "He came to us when he needed (blood) transfusions. After his accident, he was initially sent to Drake (Center), but he somehow arranged to come to our rehab. There was a part of Billie that tugged at your heartstrings."
Hospital staff bought him gifts last Christmas. The hospital gave him a wheelchair.
"He looked to us as his family," nurse manager Tina Martin said. "We didn't want to let him down."
A local homeless advocate says the story of Mr. Rodatz and his circle of friends sends a powerful message.
"In not marginalizing him and (by) seeing him as human, these people who reached out with love and compassion benefit themselves. They become more humane," said Mary Burke, co-chair of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. "Not only were his last few years of life better because of these people, society is better."
Thursday night, a woman and a pregnant teen-ager walked into the Ralph Meyer & Deters Funeral Home in Price Hill for the service. They were Sandy Pearce, mother of Mr. Rodatz's daughter, and his daughter, Celesta Bach, 16.
"He'd be shocked," Ms. Pearce said of the funeral. The Colerain Township woman met Mr. Rodatz when they were students at Mount Healthy High School.
"Billie didn't think nobody cared for him," added Ms. Pearce, who had little contact with Mr. Rodatz after the birth of their daughter. "He'd be happy right now to see this."
No one knows when Mr. Rodatz moved to the Tristate. His death notice read: He was born Dec. 27, 1959, in Detroit.
Friends said his father, Billie J. Rodatz Sr., died when Billie Jr. was middle-school age. A rift developed between young Billie and his mother when Billie confronted her about her alleged spending of Social Security benefit checks intended for Billie and his sister, Terri, who was later murdered.
Then there's Mr. Rodatz's son, Billie III, who's 10 and living with his grandmother (formerly of Forest Park) in California. The woman, Mr. Rodatz's mother, did not attend the funeral and told Ms. Lattimore she had no money to contribute to the funeral, but she had visited him at Unity Court shortly before his death. They had not seen each other for several years.
Ken Hartel, 45, a former truck driver who's disabled from work-related back and hip injuries, summed up his friend's life. "It was rough," he said. "Our plan was for him to clean up and get little Billie back." None of Mr. Rodatz's friends know who little Billie's mother is. Mr. Rodatz's mother took care of little Billie in 1994 when Mr. Rodatz served seven months of a one-year sentence at London Correctional Institution for corruption of a minor.
After his release, he returned to the Tristate and lived in a one-room apartment in College Hill until the fall of 1996, when he was evicted.
That's when Mr. Hartel met him.
"We gave him some chicken soup at home and took him over to the hospital (Franciscan-Mount Airy) and got him some medical attention," Mr. Hartel said. "He was with us for about a month. Then we got him set up at our trailer at Brookville (Ind.) Lake."
Said Mrs. Hartel: "I wasn't so sure about this. I told Ken, "We've got four kids at home.' "
Mr. Rodatz lived in the trailer for several months. The Hartels let him use one of their cars. He was trying to land a job as a cook in a pizza parlor.
In June 1997, he was seriously injured while driving the car. Mr. Rodatz's condition deteriorated in the last few months, even though he had regained movement in his upper body. Myelofibrosis causes abnormally shaped red blood cells in the bone marrow, anemia, an enlarged spleen and a reduced number of white blood cells. The body can no longer fight infection.
Mr. Rodatz was on the waiting list for a bone marrow transplant when he died. Diagnosed in 1994, he had outlived his two-year prognosis. The Rev. Jack Filippine, pastor of St. Vivian's Church, conducted the short Catholic committal ceremony and said final prayers. He had known Mr. Rodatz for two years and gave him last rites a week before his death. The priest was impressed by Mr. Rodatz's friends.
"They were real Samaritans," Father Filippine said Friday. Terrence Deters, owner of Ralph Meyer and Deters, gave Ms. Lattimore and the Hartels a 60 percent discount off normal funeral costs. Mr. Deters also spread the word, and more people came forward to contribute.
A barber from Grote Barber & Styling near the funeral home donated his services to cut Mr. Rodatz's hair and trim his beard. Flowers -- gladiolas and carnations -- were donated by Talk of the Town Florists in Price Hill. Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science prepared the body free of charge. St. Joseph Old Cemetery provided the burial plot and services.
At the end of the service, friends filed past the casket for final goodbyes. Photographs of Billie III and Celesta rested beside Mr. Rodatz, who was dressed in a dark suit with a white shirt and red tie.
The casket was flanked by a collage of photographs of Billie III that Mr. Hartel found when he cleaned out the Brookville Lake trailer. He also came across a baseball glove and Bengals mug, which, along with the crucifix from Mr. Rodatz's last rites, will be given to Billie III.
"That little boy was Billie's dream," said Mr. Hartel, unable to hold back tears. "He and his mother had agreed that he would get him back if he got better. He was doing well before the accident." Then Mr. Hartel bent over the casket and hugged his friend's body.
