But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
It’s hard to appreciate the story of these men — Siragusa, Gray and Charles Knuckles, a disabled U.S. Army veteran who lost his legs due to complications from infections and has been homeless — without knowing how their relationships started.
At 11 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2020, Siragusa, less than two miles from his home, was killed on Tylersville Road. He had a young child, Leo, at home and a wife, Haley, who was expecting their second child. Jonathan was born on March 12, 2021, six months after his father was buried.
Gray called Siragusa “more like a son” than a son-in-law.
The fatal crash left Gray empty. His life, meaningless.
“We were devastated,” he said of his family. “It was horrible. Our lives were shattered.”
He paused on the phone, before adding: “My purpose was gone.”
Months before the accident, Gray, a roofer, said the remodeling business slowed during COVID-19 and he was furloughed.
“I wrestled with God and asked Him what to do,” Gray said. “He said it was time to ‘get busy.’”
So Gray, 55, completed the 15 credit hours he needed to earn his bachelor’s degree in small business management at Miami University.
Before he graduated in May 2021, Gray purchased two dilapidated mobiles homes in Butler County with plans to remodel them and provide a home for “whomever God sent,” he said.
One of the trailers was a 1969 model located in Horning Mobile Home Park on Pleasant Avenue in Fairfield.
“Rough” is how Gray described the 53-year-old trailer.
While working on the trailer, Gray brought food to the residents and ministered to anyone who would listen. He hammered home the scripture and the siding.
Then one day, Knuckles and his constant canine companion, Dottie, rode by the trailer park on his electric wheelchair. It was about out of power and Knuckles asked Gray if he had an extension cord he could borrow.
He charged up his battery, told Gray his life story, and rode away.
Gray called Knuckles every day after that with no luck.
“Like he totally disappeared,” he said.
Three months passed and Gray figured their friendship lasted one hour.
While driving down Mason-Montgomery Road on Aug. 5, 2021 — ironically his son-in-law’s birthday — Gray looked around and saw Knuckles riding his wheelchair near a Waffle House. He pulled his commercial van over and started up a conversation.
“God has a plan for you,” he told Knuckles.
Knuckles had been homeless in Cincinnati when he was transported to Middletown by a Cincinnati police officer, he said during a May 2021 interview. He lived at Hope House, a homeless shelter in Middletown, then Quality Inn & Suites in Middletown.
He lost his left leg in 1981, his right leg in 1984.
After that chance meeting near Waffle House, Gray moved Knuckles to a hotel near his Fairfield home.
A few days later, Knuckles moved into one of Gray’s renovated trailers with another man. Gray said the arrangement didn’t work out because Knuckles wanted his own place. He stayed there for 30 days, then moved into another of Gray’s trailers in Fairfield Trails Mobile Home Park.
Gray’s sister, Cheryl Swoboda, helped care for Knuckles by preparing him meals and taking him to his numerous doctor appointments.
“God kept him going,” Gray said.
In December, Knuckles was diagnosed with liver cancer.
“He knew he was dying,” Gray said quietly.
The chemotherapy treatments caused severe rashes and hallucinations, Gray said.
“We’d be sitting on the couch and he’d be acting all crazy and I’d say, ‘That’s not a cat on the couch. It’s a paper bag,’” Gray recalled.
He was transported to Residence at Huntington Court, a Hamilton nurse center. On Feb. 11, Gray was notified by the staff that Knuckles was unresponsive and he died in his sleep. He was 66.
That death, unlike the loss of his son-in-law, gave Gray hope. Inspiration. A call to duty.
“My purpose is back,” he said.
Now he wants to teach young people a skill so they can remodel mobile homes for those in need. He said Knuckles was proud of his service to this country, and he wants others to understand the sacrifices of our veterans.
Here’s another lesson Gray said he has learned: “If you’re in pain, go find somebody to serve. God gets victory in the end. I knew I had to turn worry into praise. I needed healing and Charlie helped with my healing. When we’re at our lowest, when we think we can’t go forward, we have to listen to Him. I see God in all of this.”
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