Bowman Life Fund

Bill Bowman, known to many for his movie host persona, The Bowman Body, is facing an extreme hardship right now, and he needs immediate help. He will not ask for himself, so we humbly ask for your aid on his behalf.

If you only need the short version to help, here it is. Despite a lifetime of working and responsible saving, massive medical debt and life expenses have pushed Bill Bowman to financial ruin at 87 years of age. In less than one year, Bill has endured the loss of his wife, multiple injuries and surgeries, rehab, hospice, compiling debts and most recently, Covid-19.

This is how we got here.

As some may know, Bill’s wife, Octavia, was in Alzheimer’s care for seven years, completely depleting their life savings. There was a previous GoFundMe for Octavia in 2020, which helped Bill’s situation at the time, but he never got out of debt. In fact, things got much, much worse.

After Octavia died on October 1, 2021, funeral and estate management costs came tumbling down. Not long after, Bill’s own health took several bad turns. Injuries from two falls in November required spinal surgery and rehab. He spent more than two months—which is to say Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years—in a hospital in Florida, hundreds of miles away from his home in Virginia.

Next, Bill was placed on Hospice in-home care for three months, staying with his granddaughter, Casey, in Florida. He approached it all with the best attitude he could muster, but just as he was regaining his independence and dignity, there was another blow. On May 11th, he had a car accident which sent his vehicle, ironically, into the building of his physical therapy office. Miraculously, no one was seriously hurt, but now, his vehicle was totaled, and his heart and wallet were broken.

Unbelievably, the saga was not ending. In June, Bill was diagnosed with a Level 4 Melanoma, requiring more surgery, generating more stress and still more debt. He has thankfully been diagnosed “cancer free” at this point, but as you can imagine, things were not good in so many other ways.

In the meantime, after being away from home for more than eight months, Bill returned with Casey to Virginia to find that the family home was now in a state of terrible disrepair. The HVAC system needed a complete replacement, and foundation and plumbing issues required attention and dozens of little things. In other words, Bill Bowman’s final asset was unsellable without a substantial financial investment.

And if that was not enough, Bill Bowman contracted Covid-19 on July 31st.

Bill is a kind, funny and proud man who did well by his family and friends for a lifetime. He worked from the age of 16 to be self-sufficient and meet his obligations. He was active in his community, spent hundreds of hours raising funds for others, and of course, entertained people. Awkward kids, crazy college students and lonely night owls had a friend in the Bowman Body in the 1970s and 80s as he hosted “horrible movies” in three markets.

We have faith, despite all this. Simply, we ask that you find some way to help return all that goodwill Bill Bowman gave freely in his lifetime, in whatever way you can. Even small donations will help.