A Native Son Returns Home

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, 51-year-old Bill Keeler is kneeling in the grass in front of the Stamford Police Department planting begonias around a memorial for four police officers killed in the line of fire.

Keeler, who's preparing the area for a Wednesday morning ceremony hosted by the police chief, has been working for the city's maintenance department for the past year after returning to the area from North Carolina.

"I'm no Picasso!" Keeler said laughing, but he said that he loves working with his hands.

Landscaping and maintenence is Keeler's second career. For years, the Stamford native with deep family roots in North Greenwich worked in construction in Danbury, but when the company went bankrupt, he lost his job. After he divorced his wife, he moved to Vermont followed by Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, but he wasn't able to regain his footing.

"The companies out there saw what I was making while here [in Connecticut] and they said, 'I don't want to pay that.' But I just wanted to make enough to pay my bills," he said.

Keeler eventually decided to return to Stamford to look after his mother, who's 85 and continues to work at Karp's Hardware, and to be closer to his son, who lives in Newtown. Although he's making just enough to get by, Keeler remains positive.

"I work eight hours a day and right through lunch because I want to. I thank God everyday that I'm able to take care of my mom and that I'm still healthy—I'm still vertical," he said.

In his spare time, Keeler maintains two cemeteries that date back to the Civil War in Greenwich, including one on North Cross Road—not because he's paid to, but because he wants to.

"One of the cemeteries is on some land that my aunt used to own," he said. "I grew up there."

Keeler said that it's his positive attitude that allowed him to not give up on finding work and to keep his diabetes under control.

"Why walk around with a frown on your face?" he asked. "Why are people so down all of the time? Life is good."