Shepherds still among us as Vietnam vet takes care of the forgotten

Shepherds still among us
By Krista Ramsey • kramsey@enquirer.com • December 25, 2009


Lining the banks of the Ohio River is one of Cincinnati's sadder secrets. People - tucked into cardboard boxes, tents and cobbled-together wooden structures hardly bigger than a doghouse.

There are addicts and felons. There are also mothers and children. Altogether they are a band of lost souls, many of whom - having struggled with the outside world so long - are not looking to be found.

Into this pocket of misery goes Jim Murphy, several times each week. The Vietnam veteran slings a backpack full of milk, baby formula, flashlights, bread onto the back of his wheelchair. He makes his way to the people in need, often getting stuck in the mud along the way.

The riverbank dwellers trust Jim Murphy. They let him into their carefully camouflaged encampment and, more surprisingly, into their lives. He knows who struggles with addiction, and who with mental illness. He has seen a young woman in the last stages of AIDS reunited with her family from California. He has met the 3-week-old baby just born into the "community."
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Shepherds still among us