My mum
Used to work near Queens Park in the South Side of Glasgow. For those of you who don't know it...it's a big green park in the south side of Glasgow.

Anyway I used to work near by so would met her every so often for lunch. We would often grab a bite to eat and then walk through the park. It was on one of these jaunts we stumbled across a couple of homeless chaps. They looked in a pretty bad state, tins of Tennents super in their hands and one tooth to share between them. As we walked past them they asked for change/fags/shoes. I gave them a couple of fags, my mum some change and nobody gave them shoes. This course of events continued throughout the year, from time to time we would see them in the park, drinking and laughing away and we would always stay to have a wee word with them and ask how they were. They were actually lovely guys just down on their luck after drink/drugs had fucked everything up for them. They'd got themselves clean but couldn't find work due to lack of an address/old smack habit.

So December rolled round and we started to see less and less of them. I was getting a bit worried because you could guarantee they would be in the same spot all the time. We started to wonder if they had moved on to pastures new or fallen back in to their old ways or even gone to the big homeless hostel in the sky. We started to forget about them and put it to the back of our minds until we saw them sometime around January. The younger one, must have been about 21 or so looked in a really bad way. Not even white or pale but just...wrong. My mum was seriously concerned (she has two sons and is slightly over protective of them) and was trying to get out of him what was wrong but he wouldn't say.

Anyway she eventually convinced him that he needed to see a doctor or go to hospital as coughing up big black things every 5 minutes is never good. He eventually relented to her nagging so she agreed to drive him there.

It turned out the guy (who incidentally was 21) had contracted pneumonia really badly over the winter. Couple that with a fucked up immune system due to intravenous drug usage the guy was knackered. The doctors informed her that he was unlikely to last more than 24 hours and they could make him as comfortable as possible but that was all. She agreed to stay for a few hours with him.


She managed to find out from his mate a bit about his back ground and if he had any family. Turned out his mum had chucked him out when he was 13 for using drugs and he had been homeless ever since. The reason they had been away for a few weeks was because they had been looking all over Glasgow for her so they could try and reconcile their differences. They eventually gave up because the young one had gotten seriously ill and were making their way back to where felt familiar, the park.

Me mum, bless her, couldn't face the idea of this young guy spending a night alone so she sat with him the whole night. Throughout the whole time she was there the only thing the guy asked for was a hug because he hadn't had one since he was a kid. My mum obliged.

The young guy passed away 10 minutes later.

This happened on the night of mum and dads 25th wedding anniversary for which they had a huge party planned back at their house. She could have been at the party sipping champers and getting presents but she decided to give up that night, one which she had been looking forward to for ages, to look after a young stranger.
(Holy Cremola Foam Batman will be back on, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 13:38, 25 replies)

Seriously....
That made me cry.






I don't cry at much.
( girlinthehole, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 13:54, closed)

I never cry at stories.
But just have.
( Wet-chinned bag shanker Cannot parse Wogan, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 14:03, closed)

i wonder
if the mother, if you could call her that, ever found out about her sons untimely demise.

Glasgow is full of people as you described in your story, they just become like wallpaper. And that is unfortunate.
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 14:09, closed)

My old dear
works in the education system and tried to use all of her contacts to get in touch with the mum. She never managed it unfortunately, that tore her apart.

And sorry for making you guys cry :(

Oh and I don't think it's confined to Glasgow. If I'm out having a fag and I see a homeless guy I usually get talking to them regardless of where I am, a lot of the time they have a horror story behind them and want to change. The opportunities just aren't there for them. Glasgow probably does have a higher number than most because of all the drugs which are in it now but it's the same in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee wherever.
(Holy Cremola Foam Batman will be back on, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 14:15, closed)

Yeah, thats most certainly true.
There are an infinitely higher number of homeless addicts in Glasgow than in Edinburgh (or maybe the ones in the capital are jus not as visible, who knows).

Yet, anytime someone in Glasgow mentions Edinburgh, there's a drug joke shortly afterwards.
(bamboozled Can hear you getting fatter, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 17:50, closed)

I think
a lot of it comes to down how they cities are built. Edinburgh moved it's slums outwards and built nice town houses in it's New Town as well as keeping the Old Town pretty exclusive (although it's full of students now). I mean if you hop on a bus and go down Leith or Gorgie way there's plenty of trouble down there but not a lot of folk notice it.

Glasgow built on top of it's slums so you walk 5-10 minutes in an direction and you're in a pretty crappy area.

Although funnily enough I was in Edinburgh over the weekend and there was loads of homeless folk, addicts or not I don't know, up and down Princes and George Street so they're certainly visible.

And about the whole Edinburgh drug thing...I doubt Trainspotting, or indeed any Irvine Welsh novels, helped...
(Holy Cremola Foam Batman will be back on, Tue 7 Oct 2008, 12:20, closed)

another sniffler here
i can't bear the thought of someone dying alone :(
your mum sounds lovely.
( gypsy turnips, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 14:22, closed)

Your Mum is fab
And yep, I cried too..
( Wifey, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 14:59, closed)

Blimey
Your Mum sounds like a lovely person.
(Innogen, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 15:22, closed)

My mum
is awesome. Dirty old swinger right enough, but awesome all the same.
(Holy Cremola Foam Batman will be back on, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 15:23, closed)

Your mum is awesome
and I welled up.
( LeightonJimbo has remembered his password!, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 15:30, closed)

*dries eyes*
Oh god, you got me there. No-one should die alone, so big *hugs* for your mum.

*click*
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Fri 3 Oct 2008, 15:42, closed)

wells up
this made me cry (and most of the stories on this QOTW have made me well up too). Your mum sounds fab.
(naranjita, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 16:34, closed)

That's totally muted me
Your mother's a wonderful person.
(Sundayturkey has the biggest mug of tea, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 16:36, closed)

*click*
Get's my vote.
Nice to know he got a hug before he went.
You should tell your mum that we tip our hats to her.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 17:16, closed)

*reads*
*blarts*
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 20:17, closed)

*clicks*
Definite tearing up here. Your mum sounds like an amazing person to do something like that.
(Aruu does not put all her trust in root vegetables., Sat 4 Oct 2008, 0:37, closed)

*sniff* *sniff*
IT'S JUST ALLERGIES!

(click)
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Sat 4 Oct 2008, 13:27, closed)

Either I'm about to go on my rags
Or I'm crying cos I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy and listening to Sarah MacLachlan's Angel and thinking about how your mum sounds like one of the kindest people I've never met.


Love my mum to death. I should show it more often.
(Poppet some assembly required., Sat 4 Oct 2008, 14:26, closed)

I've been trying so hard whilst reading these
not to cry - you get the first tear of the night award *clicks*
(thereisnopoons until, Sat 4 Oct 2008, 20:43, closed)

Ignore if atheist
but your Mom has a nice little bungalow waiting for her in Heaven. With roses trained over the door and everything.

What a great gal.
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Sun 5 Oct 2008, 22:36, closed)

Not even on the same scale but

Mrs G was walking home from town one Christmas eve, having just bought herself a big bag of her favourite mixed toffee from Thorntons, to see her through the festive season. As she walked under an underpass, there was a homeless guy asking for change. She reached into her bag and gave him the toffee.

I like to think that this cheered him up at least as much as money would have.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Mon 6 Oct 2008, 11:09, closed)

Pass the Kleenex
Lovely. Made me cry and now I've got to think of an excuse for the boss...
(Marmoset Bored bored bored of cnuting revision..., Mon 6 Oct 2008, 12:08, closed)

A Saint.
Pure and simple. What a wonderful person

*sniff*
(robbersdog, Tue 7 Oct 2008, 20:59, closed)

*tears*
Your mum's a legend.
( Fathter Puddytat Kill Kill dat widdle boid is mine on, Wed 8 Oct 2008, 19:48, closed)