- Sun Nov 05, 2023 9:01 pm
#56922
Boiler wrote: ↑Sun Nov 05, 2023 1:07 pm Okay, so 5% are the Sainted Squaddies: what about the 95% who ain't?You're a good man, Boiler. There are still more of us than them - just keep clinging on to that.
I know, or actually knew, two homeless persons. One sofa-surfs and has done for several years after being chucked out of the family home after a fight and having a restraining order slapped on him. Trouble is, the place he calls 'home' for the moment may be getting sold soon as the elderly gentleman is thinking of selling up and moving near to, or in with, his sisters. I think he knows somewhere he can crash but for a year he was sleeping, well concealed amongst his belongings, in a storage unit.
The other one is sadly no longer with us. He had a troubled background (father was in jail a lot) but was best described as a cheeky chappie. The last time I saw him he was begging in an arcade and he called my name out as I approached. So I sat down and had a long chat with him and how he'd ended up where he was and how some of his family refused to help him; there was a sight, me in my Barbour jacket sat next to this poor lad. It certainly got a few looks.
As I left, I bunged him £20 and said "for fuck's sake, try and get a roof over your head tonight". I didn't expect what came next: he threw his arms around me, burst into tears and just said "thank you".
Some months later, I learned he'd taken his own life. His funeral was very well attended at the church in the village we grew up in, and all the homeless people he got to know attended. All behaved respectfully and impeccably, which is more than can be said for some.
Every time I go to see Mrs. B. at the cemetery, as I leave I walk past his grave (he's buried next to his sister - alcoholism claimed her) and always say the same thing: "You are not forgotten."