The Bill Lovatt Legacy Program
Jim Wilson and Bill Lovatt in October 2014
Jim and Bill - The Prospect House Connection:
Grateful to have successfully completed the Prospect House program in the late 1980’s, I had the privilege to return as a counselor. I worked in that capacity for a few years in the early 90’s and again in the early 2000’s. During the latter is when I met Bill. When assigned to my group almost 25 years ago, I remember being told that he was the son of Prospect House’s founder, the Reverend John Lovatt. Up to that point, my experience working with people who came with a “status” of sorts was that they often seemed to have a sense of entitlement and could be difficult to deal with.
To my surprise, this was not the case with Bill. He was the opposite in many ways. For whatever reason, maybe the car wreck, the resulting TBI, his alcoholism or maybe the combination of all three, he was the most authentic and humble person I had ever met. While a resident, his group members not only looked up to him, but also looked out for him and tried to help him at every turn. Even with all the help available to him, it did not seem to quench the growing frustration he felt about not being able to perform some of the basic recovery tasks that his peers seemed to do so effortlessly.
I will always remember one day in our counseling group when his frustration came to a head. This usually quiet, respectful, and gentle man looked at me with tears in his eyes, and yelled, “You don’t understand, nobody understands! I have a brain injury… I can’t do all these things like everyone else!”
Bill was right, mostly. He was right about everything except that he couldn’t do it. He could do it, he just needed to navigate the recovery terrain in a different way. He was right about people not understanding. Though well-intentioned, I simply did not understand. But I cared about him and wanted to understand. I once heard in recovery that helping others is less about ability, and more about availability. With a mindset of a student rather than a teacher, I made myself available to Bill. I learned from him about how best to help him. Establishing a solid recovery foundation was the goal, and to say he achieved it would be an understatement.
Bill often recounted the wide range of emotions he experienced from seeing his father’s picture hanging on the wall each time he traversed the Parish House steps. It seemed to remind him, not only of his roots, but also of the not-so-coincidental fact that he was a living, breathing part of his father’s legacy at Prospect House. Bill’s recovery may have started in the shadow of his father’s work, but it would grow to propel him to cast his own unique light into the lives of many others.
My experience with Bill was life-enriching, both personally and professionally. I have shared parts of his inspirational story with hundreds of folks since 2020 when our work with 12-2-1 Roundtables began. Bill’s life represents the kind of raw courage and perseverance that desperate and hurting people need to know, and his legacy promises to inspire people for years to come.
Bill entered into his Heavenly home on December 20th, 2023.
