A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

Kentucky by Heart: Shawn Griffith overcomes lifetime of adversity to find ‘home’ at Versailles’ Spark Café


By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist

His name is Shawn Griffith, formerly known as a “homeless man.” He now has a home, and he wants to keep it that way.

Blond-haired and stocky, Shawn, age 52, has come a long way and believes he is on the right path to a new and better life. Perhaps he still has a way to go, but many under similar circumstances might have resisted the challenge to even attempt the journey.

I learned about him from Kyle Fannin, who, along with others, started the Spark Community Café in downtown Versailles, an outreach to those experiencing food insecurity. Kyle recalled how Shawn showed up at Spark to get something to eat but quickly shied away from the restaurant when it “looked too fancy” and was “too nice a place” for someone like him. But Kyle reassured him that it was a place meant for him, telling him that Spark, as is stated in its mission, “accepts all who walk through our doors.” That said, one might surmise that the fanciness of the restaurant is a bonus for its customers.

And for Shawn, Kyle’s gesture was the beginning of a relationship that today sees him as a valued employee of Spark, one who is financially able enough to rent an apartment near the store and hopes to make Versailles his permanent and happy home.

Kyle Fannin (left) and Shawn Griffith (Photo by Steve Flairty)

Intrigued with Kyle’s words about this man, I wanted to hear Shawn’s story — from his own mouth. I was glad when he agreed to sit down with me and share his narrative for publication, and I listened in total awe.

He talked about the pain of loss of those around him during his teens and early adulthood while living in Dayton, Ohio. When he was 16, his 23-year-old cousin drowned. At age 21, he and his 15-year-old sister were standing in line at a local Halloween haunted house fun event when she incurred a medical emergency, collapsed, and died. Their father “blamed me,” said Shawn, “saying I should have been more responsible with watching over my sister.”

His father, a Korean War veteran, survived brain cancer in 1996, but died of lung cancer in ’99. His mother died of cancer in 2015. If that wasn’t enough, a good friend of his committed suicide.

“Sticks in your head,” Shawn told me.

Along the way, Shawn made some bad friend choices and took some recreational drugs. His friends stole from him and were users. He claimed that some of them planted drugs in his car trunk, for which he was arrested and charged, being “surrounded by cops,” he noted. He subsequently was wrongfully convicted of drug possession, he said and spent time in the Lebanon Correctional Institute in Ohio.

When he was released from incarceration in 2019 after spending six months in a halfway house, he had few possessions, an unclear future—and an all-encompassing desire to remove himself from the troubling environment around his former “friends.”

Shawn started walking.

When he got outside Dayton’s Montgomery County, he was picked up by a man named John who drove him toward Cincinnati and eventually dropped him off in Bellevue, across the river from Cincinnati, in Kentucky. Nothing was stolen from Shawn this time, though he learned his kind-hearted chauffeur was one in drug recovery.

What now to do, he thought? It was raining in Bellevue and he would need to sleep under the stars, something he would have to get used to doing. He also would become friends with dumpsters outside restaurants, where he would scrounge for something to eat. But soon, a girl he identified as “Sonya” picked him up and drove southward down Highway 27, dropping him off at the Dollar General store in Falmouth, her town of residence. He found some food and decided to stay for a short while.

Shawn slept behind the DG for the next three nights; there, he had the opportunity to bathe… well, sort of. “One night it rained real hard,” he explained. “There was a ditch back there and it filled with about six inches of water. I was able to take a bath and nobody had any idea I was back there.”

After his short stay in Falmouth, he was on his travel-by-foot journey again, walking south on 27, with hard rains intermittently beating down on him. His adventures were just beginning, though. “I got real tired and lay down next to someone’s property and their dog started barking. People came out and called the police on me,” Shawn said. “I really wasn’t doing anything, just so tired and laying on the side of the road in the rain and soaking wet.” The police arrived, didn’t arrest him, but instead picked him up and drove him to the Walmart in Cynthiana.

At first, Shawn would live behind the Walmart in what he called “a big storm drain.” Soon, he was able to acquire a job at a local restaurant and could pay rent at a low-priced apartment downtown, but he was fired for what Shawn termed a “misunderstanding” with another employee at the restaurant. After a month in Cynthiana, he was on the hike again on Highway 27, this time pushing a cart he took from Walmart containing his meager possessions. He was heading toward the next good-sized town, Paris.

About five miles along the way, a man mowing his yard saw Shawn walking and asked if he needed a ride. “He took me four or five miles in his pickup and dropped me off at Paris at the Walmart,” said Shawn. “There was a woods behind the Walmart and I stayed there for five days.” That was until a fire he started for warmth alerted nearby residents of Shawn’s presence; police told him he would — again — need to leave.

Steve Flairty is a teacher, public speaker and an author of seven books: a biography of Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and six in the Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes series, including a kids’ version. Steve’s “Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #5,” was released in 2019. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Monthly, a weekly NKyTribune columnist and a former member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. Contact him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or visit his Facebook page, “Kentucky in Common: Word Sketches in Tribute.” (Steve’s photo by Connie McDonald)

Shawn walked toward Lexington, but he decided to lay low and take side roads. While taking pictures of some horse farms, police were notified and, he said, came for him with a paddy wagon. He, along with his shopping cart, was transported to Lexington.

“They took me downtown and just dropped me off,” he said. “None of the homeless shelters would take me because of Covid-19.” He recalled sleeping under eaves behind a garage to escape the nuisance of rain. Then he moved, pushing his cart, away from downtown, but changed course when he passed Fayette Mall along Highway 27, where, he said, ‘it was too much of a major highway with lots of cars and I didn’t want be on it.”

Instead, Shawn decided to detour to Highway 60 toward Versailles. On October 17, 2020, he arrived in Versailles, where he found a temporary home in a wooded area near the Osram Sylvania plan. He soon learned about the free meals at Spark and as mentioned, he met Kyle.

Kyle and another person paid for Shawn to stay a few days in a Versailles hotel. He also worked a few days for Spark and was paid enough to get by temporarily. There was a strong desire for Kyle to hire Shawn full-time, but at the time, the Spark Café outreach, like public places all over the country, was being severely throttled by the Covid pandemic. There wasn’t an immediate path forward extending Shawn’s employment.

With the winter approaching, Kyle bought him a Greyhound bus ticket out of Kentucky to Florida where it would be much warmer. Shawn landed in what he called a “nice homeless subdivision” in a wooded area, comfortably (relatively) secluded from the outside world. He got along well with others who lived in the settlement.

There he met Lori, a woman who was originally from Dayton, and they became quick friends. Shawn reached out to her with some food and drink and let her sleep in his tent. They spent time walking along the nearby ocean engaging in friendly banter. It appeared to be a good and mutual relationship.

But then, more pain would come to “stick in Shawn’s head.” Lori seemed to disappear, and Lori’s daughter, after an intense search, found Shawn and revealed the sad news that her mother had died from cancer—her medical condition something Lori had never mentioned to Shawn. Though the two had not known each other a long time, it was a tough blow for him, one he talked freely about to me.

After being in Florida for four months, he now would move northward to a place another homeless friend recommended—with cooler temps–this time to Crossville, Tennessee. He would spend the summer and early fall there. Then, on September 28, he received an email while at a Dunkin’ Donuts’ location in Crossville, a place Shawn frequented because it had free wi-fi. The message was from Kyle, and it proved to be good news. He told Shawn he had a job at Spark and a place to live waiting for him in Versailles.

Soon, Kyle drove to Crossville and brought Shawn back to Versailles. That’s where the situation is today — and it is inspiring. Although Kyle noted that there were some obstacles involved in the process, Shawn has a place to live on his own — one that he pays for with his paycheck from Spark, along with some extra dollars he’s earned doing odd jobs for a nearby business. Shawn is happy about his new life… and especially having a new set of friends — real friends. He’s added to the positive culture of Spark and helps demonstrate that the outreach to the community is working.

A fellow worker at Spark came close to tears in praising Shawn.

“He is one of the hardest workers you’ll ever find,” she said. “He’s so appreciative of what we think of as (just) human decency. He wants to learn everything. He is the kind of employee you’d want to have… doing things as best he can, as hard as he can, as fast as he can.”

He’s also an amazing overcomer, a “can do” guy — and a person for which all of us can take inspiration. Shawn Griffith, formerly a homeless man. He just needed a Spark to get where he is today.


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2 Comments

  1. Dean Brewer says:

    Great article Steve, thank you for sharing.

  2. William (Bill) Burt says:

    When travelers, lost or intentional, find the Wonders of Kentucky it often makes a profound impact.
    A soul-warming connection deeper than words.
    I’m proud Shawn found Versailles. I’m proud Kentucky found Shawn.

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