{"id":682,"date":"2025-11-21T14:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T14:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/badvibes.live\/?p=682"},"modified":"2025-11-21T14:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T14:19:09","slug":"we-invited-a-homeless-man-for-dinner-he-stayed-for-45-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badvibes.live\/?p=682","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We invited a homeless man for dinner \u2013 he stayed for 45 years\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rob Parsons and his wife Diane were listening to the\u00a0radio<\/a>\u00a0and getting ready for\u00a0Christmas<\/a>\u00a0on 23 December 1975 when they heard a knock at the door of their\u00a0Cardiff<\/a>\u00a0home.<\/p>\n

The couple contemplated ignoring it \u2013 after all, they\u2019d already overcompensated the young carol singer murdering Once In Royal David\u2019s City \u2013 but Rob, now 77, switched off the radio and went to the door.<\/p>\n

On the step was a man with several days\u2019 stubble on his square chin, dirty, creased clothes and messy brown hair.<\/p>\n

\u2018There was something unusual about him,\u2019 lawyer and author Rob tells BAD VIBES MAGAZINE from his Cardiff home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t you know who I am? I\u2019m Ronnie Lockwood\u2019, the man said, as he handed over a black bin bag containing all his possessions and thrust a frozen chicken into Rob\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Rob didn\u2019t recognise him at first, but suddenly the memories came flooding back.<\/p>\n

He says: \u2018One day, at Sunday School in the little chapel on the corner of my street, the teacher Miss Williams introduced a new boy, Ronnie. She said he had some challenges. One of the first things Ronnie did was to put my friend in a headlock and hide Miss Williams\u2019s handbag,\u2019 Rob remembers.<\/p>\n

Ronnie disappeared when he was 11. It later emerged that the local authority had taken him from his parents\u2019 home and put him in a home 200 miles away, \u2018in what was disgracefully described as a school for subnormal boys\u2019, Rob explains.<\/p>\n

Gathering his thoughts back in 1975, Rob asked what the frozen chicken was for. \u2018Ronnie said that somebody had given it to him for Christmas, but he can\u2019t cook. So I brought him inside and Diane made him a roast\u2019, remembers, Rob who\u00a0has written a book<\/a>, about the impact Ronnie had on his family over the years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rob made the\u00a0coffee<\/a>\u00a0while his wife cooked and the three of them sat at the kitchen table in near silence, punctuated only by the couple\u2019s questions. When they asked where he was sleeping, Ronnie replied simply \u2018here and there\u2019.<\/p>\n

As Ronnie went to watch\u00a0Coronation Street<\/a>\u00a0on TV in another room, Rob and Diane had hushed conversations about what to do. They decided to let him stay until after\u00a0Boxing Day<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 though they insisted Ronnie, who smelled strongly, have a shower and let Diane wash his clothes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That Christmas, the couple hurriedly bought him gifts and took him to the midnight carol service, but it was a strange celebration for all of them, including Rob\u2019s visiting parents. But what Ronnie lacked in conversational skills, he made up for domestically, washing up meticulously and unloading the dishwasher.<\/p>\n

As Boxing Day came and went, Rob and Diane realised they couldn\u2019t cast Ronnie out, and decided to take advice from the authorities.<\/p>\n

\u2018I went to see the guys at the\u00a0homeless<\/a>\u00a0centre and they said, \u201cWell, the problem is to get a job, he needs an address. To get an address, you need a job\u201d. That\u2019s the catch 22 that loads of homeless people are in,\u2019 Rob tells\u00a0Metro<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So they let him stay in the spare room for a couple of months while Ronnie got himself established as a dustman. Those months turned into years, which turned into decades.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ronnie was at once the most frustrating guest and the most endearing one,\u2019 remembers Rob. \u2018Diane used to say: \u201cI don\u2019t know whether I am his friend, his sister, his social worker or his mother.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A few years after Ronnie moved in, Diane gave birth to daughter Katie, and then Lloyd, and their one-bathroom home began to feel too small. They decided it was time to tell their house guest to find an apartment of his own.<\/p>\n

\u2018I went upstairs to his room, and I knocked on his door, and he turned around to me and said a phrase I\u2019ve heard dozens of times since he lived with us. It was a hangover from this time at the care home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave I done a bad thing?\u201d I said, \u201cNo, you haven\u2019t done a bad thing.\u201d Suddenly Diane stormed into the bedroom and dragged me downstairs, burst into tears, and said: \u201cWe can\u2019t do it.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

A few nights later, Ronnie said to Rob: \u201cWe three are firm friends, aren\u2019t we?\u201d And I said, \u201cYes, Ronnie, we three are firm friends\u201d. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll be together forever, won\u2019t we?\u201d And his question hung in the air. And I turned to look at Diane, and eventually she gave me the tiniest of nods, and I said, \u201cYes, Ronnie, we\u2019ll be together forever\u201d, he remembers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the years, Rob discovered that in 1953, Ronnie\u2019s parents had told him he was going on a \u201clittle holiday\u201d on his own. He had learning difficulties \u2013 Rob suspected he was on the\u00a0autistic<\/a>\u00a0spectrum \u2013 and he was collected by a social worker and driven to a home where he immediately wet himself through fear. As part of a cruel initiation ceremony, the boys already in residence made him walk along the top of a ten-foot glass-topped wall. He fell and smashed his knees, leaving him in pain for life.<\/p>\n

Ronnie ended up living with Rob and Diane for 45 years. There were difficult times. Ronnie, trying to be helpful, would wake them in the early hours by clattering in the kitchen. He would gamble away his earnings on the one-armed bandit slot machines \u2013 a habit he managed to kick thanks to his time with the couple. He was very strict about his routines but often had to be reminded about his personal hygiene.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Almost to the day he died we\u2019d be saying to him: \u201cHave you had a shower? Have you done this? Have you done that?\u201d And yet, he was the kindest man,\u2019 Rob remembers.<\/p>\n

\u2018Then, Diane, after the birth of Lloyd, woke up one day, said to me, \u201cI can\u2019t cope anymore\u201d. She\u2019d just had her gallbladder out, she\u2019d had a miscarriage, given birth to Lloyd, we\u2019d moved house, and she was eventually diagnosed with ME. She could suddenly hardly get out of bed, and my vibrant wife, who could light up a party, was gone.\u2019 Diane was struggling physically and emotionally and Rob had to take on the childcare while she recovered.<\/p>\n

\u2018Just then, Ronnie came into his own, and he stepped up to help. He would make a bottle for the baby, sit with Katie while I was pushing Lloyd around the block and make beans on toast. When he joined us, he was a lodger, then he became a friend, and suddenly became the brother I never had,\u201d Rob explains. Ronnie remained though it all: children, then grandchildren, all the while faithfully stacking and unloading the dishwasher.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That was until 2020, when Ronnie fell in his room and was unable to move.<\/p>\n

\u2018As the ambulance doors closed, I shouted, \u201cI love you Ronnie\u201d, and he shouted it back\u2019, Rob remembers.<\/p>\n

Ronnie was alone in hospital when Rob received a call confirming that he\u2019d suffered a stroke. Because of the strict lockdown restrictions, the couple were forbidden from visiting. In two months, they were only able to see him once, pushed to the window in a hospital in a wheelchair. It was heartbreaking. In hospital he deteriorated, had another stroke and they were by his bedside as he passed away at the age of 75.<\/p>\n

\u2018We miss him a lot,\u2019 Rob says sadly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018When he was a child, he was abandoned and I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if that was how he felt as he lay dying. I was sure he couldn\u2019t have understood why we were unable to visit him.\u2019<\/p>\n

Three days later after Ronnie died, the doorbell rang and an unknown elderly woman was standing on the step with a bunch of flowers.<\/p>\n

\u2018She said: \u201cI heard about Ronnie. I\u2019m sorry. He used to help me. My husband died a couple of years ago and every week he would come and take my bin out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018That was who Ronnie was. He was very kind and he loved to give \u2013 whether it was Christmas presents or acts of kindness.\u2019<\/p>\n

After his death, a new \u00a31.6m wellbeing centre attached to Glenwood Church in Cardiff was named after him. The Lockwood Centre, paid for in part with Ronnie\u2019s estate, was opened by Mark Drakeford, then the first minister of\u00a0Wales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Since Ronnie died, we\u2019ve talked a lot about him and we have said to each other that it was really hard, but that we would do it all again. The kids were great, they never said: \u201cWhy are we the weird family with the homeless guy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m sure the kids wouldn\u2019t have changed it, and we wouldn\u2019t have changed it either. Ronnie Lockwood was a gift to us all.\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob Parsons and his wife Diane were listening to the\u00a0radio\u00a0and getting ready for\u00a0Christmas\u00a0on 23 December 1975 when they heard a knock at the door of their\u00a0Cardiff\u00a0home. The couple contemplated ignoring it \u2013 after all, they\u2019d already overcompensated the young carol singer murdering Once In Royal David\u2019s City \u2013 but Rob, now 77, switched off the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t