Randall Williams co-founded NewSouth Books with his partner in business and life, Suzanne La Rosa; La Rosa hasn't seen him since the accident three weeks ago.
Three weeks ago, Suzanne La Rosa said a nightmare began when her life and business partner Randall Williams fell through a hole in a roof in downtown Montgomery, and very nearly fell out of her life.
“It’s been so emotionally difficult not to be able to see him, or put my hand on his arm,” La Rosa said. “I would be in that hospital 24/7. I wouldn’t have left his side.”
La Rosa has relied only on phone calls for updates on Williams at Baptist South. Visitors aren't allowed due to coronavirus restrictions.
“I’ve been pacing the floors,” she said. “It’s a terrible thing when you have someone you love who you can’t even visit, and he’s in critical condition.”
La Rosa and Williams are co-founders of NewSouth Books in downtown Montgomery. They’re also a couple who have known each other for decades.
La Rosa remembers running to the scene when she found out what had happened at the old commercial building on Jefferson Street, where Williams had been working.
“This was a fun project with his best buddy, Joel (Sanders),” said La Rosa. “Randall is no stranger to rehabbing buildings, so this is just pure carelessness on his part.”
There was a hole on the roof, which Williams and Sanders had seen and been warning each other about. “Randall must have gotten preoccupied, stepped backward and fell backward through the hole onto a concrete slab,” La Rosa said.
It was about a 15-foot drop, La Rosa said, and caused a massive amount of injuries: three skull fractures, multiple rib fractures, a punctured lung, internal bleeding, vertebrae fractures and bleeding on the brain.
“He was majorly broken up,” La Rosa said.
A couple of days after the fall, Williams’ lungs started to swell up, requiring a ventilator.
“He was in quite critical condition, and I’m telling you in those first 48 hours the doctors were very concerned,” La Rosa said.
La Rosa feared Williams would be paralyzed, which was a possibility if he didn’t get back surgery. But surgery had to wait until about a week ago when the swelling went down just enough in Williams’ lungs.
After successful back surgery, Williams developed pneumonia. Doctors had to change his ventilator situation, taking the tube out of his throat and giving Williams a tracheotomy.
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“The advantage of that is that he can be brought out of sedation a little bit,” La Rosa said.
When doctors had previously tried to bring him out of sedation, La Rosa said Williams was combative and upset.
“Now, he doesn’t have all that apparatus on his face,” she said. “Every time he was upset, it set him back. His system is so fragile.”
No other immediate procedures are planned for Williams, other than to monitor his brain function to make sure there's no more bleeding. La Rosa said he needs to get his lungs healthier.
Doctors have been very reluctant to give her any forecast on Williams’ recovery time, simply because his condition can change from day to day. Progress is coming in small increments.
“I am really optimistic about his full recovery,” La Rosa said. “He’s a strong man, and we have a lot left to do together.”
How they met
“It’s really been a fabulous life for us, really,” La Rosa said. “It’s been a very rich life.”
La Rosa, who was born and raised in New York, said she met Williams when she moved to Montgomery with her former husband.
As fellow publishers, La Rosa and Williams soon began working together.
“We had complementary strengths,” La Rosa said. “(Williams) has a deep understanding of the South, but I have a better understanding of the national marketplace. We’ve both run publishing businesses, and we were very simpatico. We decided to do this together. That’s how NewSouth started.”
At first, they were close friends. Later, though they never married, they developed a romantic relationship. Together, they’ve grown New South into a national operation that runs from Montgomery.
“Our books are sold from Boston to Berkeley,” La Rosa said. “We’re not a huge company, but we’re not tiny, and Randall and I are still at the heart of it. It’s our shared vision. Whatever we do going into the future, we’re going to do it together. He’s my partner, and I love him to death.”
A separate but related business of theirs is Read Herring bookstore, 105 S. Court St., which La Rosa said was an add-on to NewSouth.
“When we moved downtown, we bought a building that had that retail space,” La Rosa said.
What’s next for Randall Williams
La Rosa credits Baptist South for the care they’ve given Williams. What she fears is that Williams may be moved to another facility while he’s still very fragile and vulnerable.
The goal is to eventually transfer Williams to a rehabilitation center. When that’s going to happen is the big question. A large part of the wait is figuring out when Williams will be strong enough to take off the ventilator.
What La Rosa fears is that Williams may be required to move earlier because of the number of coronavirus cases at the hospital.
“I’m not saying they’re pressuring me. They’re not,” La Rosa said. “It has come up once or twice as a possibility, but nobody has formally approached me and said he has to be moved.”
Still, La Rosa is considering options. Making these difficult decisions might be a little easier if she wasn’t barred from being at Williams’ side.
“Intellectually, I understand why,” La Rosa said. “But let me tell you, you don’t want a loved one in the hospital when you can’t be there. It has been a torment. That’s what it’s been, a torment.”
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel at [email protected].
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