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TAMPA —Nan Neville leaned on her cane as she walked up to her stool behind the microphone at a downtown park Tuesday night.
The 53-year-old leaned in, took a breath and started her story.
She was one of several family and friends who came to Joe Chillura Courthouse Square Park to honor the 56 homeless people who died this year in Hillsborough County.
The annual ceremony is hosted by the Hillsborough County Homeless Coalition to give some of the dead "the only memorial they will ever have," said Patricia Langford, its president.
Neville told the crowd of nearly 300 about her husband, Mark Neville, 58, who died at Tampa General Hospital in May.
She met Mark 14 years ago at a labor hall and the conversations were great, she remembered.
"I wasn't really talking a lot then but I enjoyed the conversations we would have," she said.
They spent years living on the streets together before he popped the question.
Someone donated rings for their wedding ceremony on March 10. By May, the sclerosis, lung problems and kidney failure had hospitalized him twice.
He died May 13 and Nan Neville quit drinking in August.
She took his ashes to Bayshore Boulevard and set him free.
"His ashes blew back at me," she recalled. "I think it was my husband's way of giving me one last goodbye kiss."
Others remembered friends by reading their names aloud as homeless coalition workers lit candles in their honor.
Renaye Davis, 55, died Sunday at a Salvation Army women's housing facility, said Yvonne Christie, who fought back tears as she read Davis' name.
"She wasn't sick," Christie said. "She only smoked. We don't know what happened."
Davis had one son that her friends at the shelter knew of. She worked hard as a day laborer and her bosses continued to extend her temporary contracts to keep her on, said Melissa Brass, who works for the facility that houses 29 women.
Brass said Davis' alarm went off to wake her for work at 4:30 a.m. Sunday and when she didn't turn it off, they found her.
"We were just in shock," she said.
Cory Crocker found out just before the ceremony that his friend David Kelly, 41, was among the dead.
Kelly, a master carpenter and cabinetmaker who lost his business, had been on and off the streets since 2005, Crocker said.
Though he had health problems, Kelly's brother's death a few years ago had served as a wake-up call for Kelly.
"I thought he was a win," said Crocker, who is also a pastor.
He said he's lost a few friends every year, and had to memorialize them at this event.
The Tampa City Council and the Hillsborough County Commission both issued proclamations in honor of National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day, which falls on Dec. 21, the longest night of every year.
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