Man who fell 40 feet in Parkway Towers dies

One with creation: Changed by tragedy, artist found new spirit

Parkway Towers
Parkway Towers

When Asher Mendonsa came out of a weeks-long coma in 2005, it was more than just waking up. It was being reborn.

The 17-year-old's back and neck were broken. His legs no longer worked, nor did his right arm. He had serious brain injuries. All the result of a 40-foot fall in the Parkway Towers building next to Finley Stadium.

"When he woke up at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, that was a place of rebirth for him," said his father, Andy Mendonsa. "He was not who he was before."

Asher decided a new last name was needed to reflect that he had changed. After leaving the Shepherd Center in January 2006, he took the last name "Love." In the years since, he also had eight teardrops tattooed on his face beneath his eyes, five on the left, three on the right.

photo Asher Love Mendonsa

"The idea of love was very important to him and, in his last years of living, forgiveness was at the forefront of his life -- forgiveness of others, the forgiveness that we've been given by God," his father said. "(People) remain in the past, remain angry, remain bitter, and forgiveness kept coming back as a recurring theme in his life."

Asher's life ended on April 21, just a month shy of the 10-year anniversary of his fall on May 23, 2005. His health had been declining since 2013, a result of his injuries.

"He was just beautiful; a beautiful soul," his father said, his voice breaking.

The Mendonsa family has had more than its share of tragedies. A few months after Asher's accident, a tornado knocked a tree down on their St. Elmo home, causing $150,000 in damage.

Then, in November 2005, the Mendonsas' phone rang on a Friday night. The voice on the other end asked Andy Mendonsa if he had a daughter named Kathleen. That was the middle name of his daughter, who went by Hadrienne.

The 20-year-old and her friends were going to see a movie when their vehicle was struck by a car on Mountain Creek Road. Her friends were severely injured and Hadrienne sustained traumatic damage to her brain. On Nov. 20, 2005, she was removed from life support and died the same day.

Then-Mayor Ron Littlefield set up a fund to help the Mendonsas; he noted that the family had done generous work in Chattanooga through Inner City Ministries and Widow's Harvest, which Andy Mendonsa helped create.

Jennifer Crutchfield got to know Asher through mutual friends Bob Stagner and the late Dennis Palmer, the founders of the Shaking Ray Levi Society. Palmer, Crutchfield and Asher were neighbors and enjoyed many group dinners together.

"He was a funny guy with a really caustic sense of humor, but you can't really blame him," Crutchfield said. "He would throw a stick in conformity's eye because he could, but you can't argue that he loved life.

"He just kept on keeping on, and making art when I think a lot of people would not have."

An avid photographer before his accident, Asher continued to shoot afterwards. In 2009, he opened the Asher Love Gallery in St. Elmo; it has since closed.

"He continued to take pictures and create beauty and persevere in ways that I can't even understand," his father said. "When you have the use of everything and you use so little of it, to see him with so little doing so much was inspiring."

Stagner said Asher "had a really clear, honest view and I wish more people could have heard it. That is what I'm holding in my heart."

"I loved talking to him," Stagner says. "His spirit was always really very strong. We will miss him."

Contact Shawn Ryan at sryan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327. Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.

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