Homelessness – Follow-Up on Charlie

For those of you who follow our blogs, you’ll know that earlier this year Stevie visited Brighton on another NLP learning and whilst he was there he went out at night working with the homeless. He worked with many homeless people but the main focus of our blogs was Charlie. 

Charlie has been living on the streets of Brighton for 2 years and he ended up there after having a break down following the death of his wife. He simply couldn’t cope without her. He scattered her ashes in the sea at Brighton and now he sleeps rough on the pier so that he can feel closer to her.

Now that Stevie is back in Scotland he has by no means forgotten about Charlie or any of the other people that he worked with. Before he left he asked some local business owners to do what they could for the people sleeping rough in the area. He also asked a very close friend, Jane who had met Charlie and who lives closer to Brighton than Stevie to do what she could.

Jane visited Charlie again this week, this is what she reported:

“Went to Brighton to visit Charlie on Sunday. He has a nice new warm coat that somebody gave him and has been home to pick up his dog 'Buzz' from his mums.

He is still so sad about the loss of his wife but he feels better now he has Buzz as he is a reminder of all the happy times he spent with her. He is trying to get into the West Pier Homeless Project but needs a relative to be able to stay in the area. I gave him some money for a coffee and chatted to him for about 40 minutes. He remembered me and said hello 'Jane!' I can’t believe that he would remember my name! He now has a mobile phone and he asked me to forward his number as he wants to keep in contact. Just the thought of Stevie made him smile! :) He seemed very up compared to how he was before. He said he is still drinking but nowhere near so much!”

It’s great to hear that Charlie is doing okay and the companionship of Buzz is obviously making the cold winter
nights just a little bit brighter. We will continue to post updates on Charlie.

2 Comments

Posted by Matt Wingett on 15 December 2010

Well, this is a far more alert and focussed Charlie than the one Stevie and I met on a windy autumn night in Brighton. He is starting to pay attention to himself again, from the look of this. Good luck Charlie. If I''m over there, I will look in on you. Matt

Posted by kate on 15 December 2010

what a difference! little steps do indeed make a big difference! fantastic! K

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