A sad day at Ben's Centre

We returned after Easter to the usual ups and downs of life on the streets. With our service users some thing’s had gone well and others not so well. Unfortunately events took a sad turn this week as one of our beloved family members died at the weekend. He had been unwell in hospital for over 10 days and he lost his fight for life on Saturday. At 43 this was no age to die, but those 43 years had taken a lot out of him. He had lots of regrets and a deep sadness. However, he belonged to our family at Ben's. He had a beautiful personality and his fellow ‘brothers and sisters’ on the streets were very low today, shocked and saddened by his loss. The week before he went into hospital he had come into Ben’s after another long night on the streets. Our health worker was promoting “5 a day”. We had lots of unusual fruit to taste, and he picked up a Chinese pear and settled himself on one of our large leather sofas. He kicked off his shoes and spread the paper on the floor. He was laid full length on the sofa, reading the paper pear juice running down his chin. He looked at home which he was! I smiled at a volunteer who had also noticed his contentment. He wasn’t asking for a lot just to find somewhere safe to belong. He will be very sadly missed!