Family of well-known Onset homeless woman killed in accident remembers her struggles
PETER PEREIRA/The Standard-Times Annmarie RIta takes shelter from the rain under the steps of a building in Wareham. Rita had been living on the streets for more than 10 years.
WAREHAM — When Jessica Bruno reunited with her mother six years ago, she pleaded with the homeless, mentally ill woman to get help. She even wrote her phone number on the back of a photograph in the hopes her mother would call her — but the phone never rang.
"When people are that sick, they don't always realize how sick they are," said Bruno, 36, of Woburn.
"I was always hoping that she would reach out to me and she never did."
Bruno's mother, Annmarie Rita, a well-known homeless woman in Onset, died Wednesday night after an SUV struck her on Cranberry Highway. Rita, 55, suffered from mental illness and multiple sclerosis, Bruno told The Standard-Times in 2007.
The woman had been homeless since about 2002, wandering Onset and sometimes staying in local motels through the kindness of strangers who paid to put her up for a week at a time. Rita came to Onset by way of Middleboro and, before that, New Hampshire, although she was originally from Waltham and grew up on a farm there.
The Standard-Times profiled Rita in 2007 after she was found camping out in the bandshell. Shortly after, Bruno located her through a Google search and the two reunited.
Rita declined to accept her daughter's help, however, instead staying on the streets even through frigid Onset winters. Bruno returned to Onset three weeks after the reunion to plead with Rita again, only to be turned down a second time. Bruno has not seen or spoken to her mother since.
"I don't know if part of it was being afraid to lose control of what little control she had over her life," Bruno said.
Local residents remember Rita as a talkative woman who never panhandled. Typically hanging out around McDonald's or Cumberland Farms, Rita often received a dollar or two from locals who remember her decorating the overpasses over Route 25 around Christmas with dollar-store garland and tinsel.
"A couple years ago, I know her biggest dream was to have a week in a motel," Wareham resident Jacqueline Ferris said. "I remember she said she wanted showers."
Rita stayed in a motel just three weeks ago at Jasper's Too, where rooms go for $66 per night, staff there said.
"Usually, she'd be willing to start the conversation," front desk clerk Madison Phillips, 22, said. Phillips added that the last time she saw Rita, the homeless woman made her a ham sandwich. "She was one of the nicest people to stay here."
Wareham police also kept an eye on Rita and tried to help her when they could, although she always resisted.
"We tried to help her with shelter programs. She always refused help," police spokesman Lt. Kevin Walsh said, adding he wished Rita had helped herself.
Rita is the second pedestrian fatality on Cranberry Highway in two months. A 59-year-old man was killed on the same stretch of road in late April.
The phone call Bruno received telling her Rita had died was something she had dreaded, she said.
"Honestly, I was always worried when it was cold out," Bruno said.
She said Thursday that she wished her mother had chosen a different path.
"I tried very hard to get my mother help," she said. "She really was just a free spirit."
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