articles by Jessie from Cambuslang

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Story about Charlie

This is a story about a man named Charlie.   Charlie has three sisters and 3 brothers and is 38 years old.   He has been married and divorced and has 2 boys from his marriage.   Now he has moved away to London away from his family and friends.  

His break up from his wife really upset him - she was his life, that’s what he said.   But now he works and has a really good life.   He has a girlfriend now and he’s very happy with his life now.   He sees his two boys every month for the full weekend and the boys look forward to seeing him.   They go to the pictures and swimming and they even go fishing together.   I think they enjoy their dad's company.   They said they wouldn’t do those things together if their dad was still living with them, which I think is quite sad.   In a way I think they were right because many families don’t do things together – instead they take each other for granted.    It’s not until the family splits up that parents feel that they have to take responsibility for their kids.

Jessie

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“The Old Man”

There’s a man that lives in a model lodging house for down-and-outs.   He’s lived in the model for twelve years now.   He has an old pram he uses to collect rubbish.   Well, he says, it’s useful to me.    The kids call him names and throw things at him and say, “Maybe you would like to keep that because you just collect s---- anyway.”  

The man is very friendly to talk to but does not keep himself clean and always smells strongly of alcohol.  

I spoke to him one day as we sat at the bench in the park.   He told me he had a wife and two kids   When I asked what happened to them he said his wife had left him for his best friend.   As a result he had lost everything, including his job, because that’s when he took to drink - the demon drink.   

I asked him why he drinks and he said it helps him forget.   He insists all he ever did was love his family.   He doesn’t like the way he is living but it’s the only way because he would never get a job.

“When they find out you live in a 'model' you might as well not exist.”

When I asked him why he could not put his name down for a house, he replied that he would have to wait years.

 “And anyway this is all I own.   I just wish I could see my two sons.   I haven’t seen them for 13 years.”

“What age they would be?”

“About 15 years and 17 years.    John and Ian,” he said.

He cannot trust anyone again.   I asked him what his life was like before the split and he said he had never touched a drink until this happened.   He used to work in a pub.

“That’s why I took to drink.   Because it was staring me in the face all the time.”

Then his boss found him drunk when he was working and found the takings were going down.  

“He put 2 and 2 together and he sacked me.   Then in the space of a year I lost my house and my dignity.   I don’t like drinking and being black and smelly but I can’t help it.   Anyway you don’t want to hear my problems.”

I asked him if he had photos of his boys.   

“Yes, but they’re mine – you’re not getting them,” he said.   “I wouldn’t know them now.   The strange thing is I could be seeing them every day and wouldn’t even know any different.”

I asked him if he thought he would stop drinking if they got in touch with him, and clean himself up.

He replied bitterly, “I don’t want to be hurt again.   Anyway, they have got a dad - my best friend - well I thought he was.”

I found talking to Bert (that’s his name) humbling.   He is a very lonely man and he’s hurting inside still, after all these years, and I think it will take a long, long time before he can trust anyone again.   I also found him a highly intelligent man   I think he goes round looking for things hoping he will find his family again.  

Bert died a few years after I met him.   He was a very kind and decent man

We must learn not to label people by the way they look, because you can never understand anyone properly until you know the full history of the person.

Jessie

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Oh Jessie, that was a moving story.  

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