Good Neighbors
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Joe Timmerman
Team Cobb
After a lifetime spent in Union, Missouri, Bill Schroeder, 82, is the last of his family. But he’s not alone, he said. He has, in his own words, “good neighbors.”
As Schroeder’s health has declined in recent years, the son of the founder of locally famed White Rose Cafe has become reliant on the community that he’s made a home in. “That’s one good thing about a small town, you got a lot of friends,” Schroeder said.
A staple of the town, it seems like everyone has their own Bill story. Growing up, Schroeder washed dishes at his family’s restaurant and shined shoes at the Town & Country Barber Shop for 50 cents per pair. In adulthood, he served in the Vietnam War before he returned to Union and made a career for himself in auto body work. “He’s the most interesting person in town,” barber Priscilla, who grew up in Union and has known Bill her entire life, said with a big smile on her face. “He’s crazier than a bed bug,” a customer exclaimed.
These days, Schroeder spends his time working on chores around the nearly 100-year-old house he grew up in even as a growing number of health conditions, including dementia, begin to hold him back. “I get out there working and think I’m still a kid but I ain’t,” Schroeder said. “I always got something going on, but never finished.”
Bill Schroeder hangs a painting of a race car he built above the mantel of his living room in Union. Bill spent his life working on cars in an auto body shop, but four DWI’s and a two-year stint in prison about a decade ago left him without a license.
Bill smokes a cigarette on his front porch with his beagle, Mojo.
Bill opens the fence door that connects his backyard to the yard of his deceased brother’s house to work on chores. Bill's house, which his father built the same year he built the White Rose Cafe in 1932, is just two blocks from Main Street.
Bill, at his doctor’s request, records the amount of times he coughs. Bill said his sinuses have gotten so bad that he quit drinking.
Bill carries bottles of Bodyarmor sports drink through his house after working in the yard. A local senior center drops off a variety of food and drinks for Bill, which he often passes on to his neighbors.
Ruth Eaves, left, who moved to town five years ago, picks up her neighbor, Bill, and his dog, Mojo, for a trip to the vet. “He’s getting old, he used to be able to do a lot more,” Ruth said. “So I help him out.”
Ruth, left, pets Mojo as her neighbor, Bill, wait for his vet appointment in Union. Ruth is one of a handful of neighbors who help Schroeder complete his chores.
Bill walks into his house after a vet appointment.
Bill makes his way through his house as Mojo sits on the bed.
Bill shovels dirt from his neighborhood’s street into a trash can. After two weeks of being bedridden because of an illness earlier this year, Bill lost 28 pounds. “I just try to keep moving, doing something,” Bill said. “My arms all shrunk up. I wasn’t doing no work so I wasn’t hungry.”
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