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Dr. Vernon Coleman tells the story of a tramp he knew who was killed, probably by kids “just for fun.” Who was this man? What Dr. Coleman discovered is a lesson for all of us – never judge a book by its cover.
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The following is taken from ‘Bilbury Pie’ – book number 6 in Vernon Coleman’s `The Young Country Doctor book’. (There are 15 books in the series)
Geoffrey the tramp had been a part of Barnstaple for several years. As much as a fixture as the Pannier Market or Butchers’ Row.
He lived rough; spending his days prowling the streets on the lookout for bits and pieces of useful debris and his nights curled up in a cardboard box. I never saw him begging but if people offered him money he would accept the gesture with a gentle graciousness. He had a long beard flecked with grey and wore a brown tweed overcoat. Even in summer, you could hear him wheezing like an out-of-condition water pump.
Once, I chased away a few youths who had gathered around to make fun of him. Sometime last winter someone poured petrol onto his cardboard home and set fire to it. Geoffrey suffered severe bums and was lucky to survive. Where does such cruelty come from?
A couple of weeks ago I realised that Geoffrey had not been around for a while. Concerned and curious I made a few enquiries.
“We found him dead in a building society doorway,” an unconcerned policeman told me. “He’d been beaten and kicked to death.”
I felt sadness, anger and despair in almost equal mixtures. “Who did it?”
The policeman shrugged. “No idea. Kids probably.”
“Why?” I couldn’t understand it. “He couldn’t have had anything worth stealing.”
“Probably just for fun.”
“For fun?”
No one seemed to care very much. In death, as in life, Geoffrey had passed by unnoticed. No one will mourn his passing. No one will seek revenge for his loss. There will be no recriminations. This is the twentieth century. Civilisation.
I wondered what sort of man he was, how he had come to end his days sleeping in a cardboard box and what sorrows, despair, frustrations and unhappinesses had ruled his life. I have spent much of the week doing a little detective work.
Geoffrey was born in Wolverhampton in 1942 and although his childhood seems to have been uneventful, the first half of his adult life was extremely successful. He loved motorcars and was a brilliant mechanic. He built up a very successful garage business. At the age of 27 he married and, at his wife’s insistence, sold the garage and bought a fast-food franchise. His wife didn’t like the motor car business. She thought it rather ‘dirty’ and ‘low class’.
All went well for ten years. Geoffrey got richer and his wife gave birth to two children. He bought a large house with two garages, a swimming pool and a tennis court and expanded his business. The dream finally soured when his wife took a fancy to a young solicitor whom she had met at her tennis club. She announced that she wanted a divorce.
Although he was guiltless Geoffrey freely offered to give her the house. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted money. Her young solicitor lover insisted that Geoffrey turn all his business interests into cash. It wasn’t a good time to sell and the bank took most of Geoffrey’s share of the proceeds.
With the small sum that was left over, Geoffrey bought an old van and started again; living in a rented flat several miles from the smart home he’d had to sell. He couldn’t afford the equipment he had needed to set up a restaurant, so he parked in a lay-by and sold hot dogs and hamburgers to lorry drivers. He was happy to have the work and his customers were satisfied. For a while, it looked as though he would survive.
Then, one morning Geoffrey woke to find a letter from his wife’s solicitor on his doormat. She had found out about his new business and she wanted her share of the income.
Geoffrey left his rented flat, abandoned his van and headed south. Through some primeval instinct, he headed for North Devon where he had spent many happy childhood holidays. Ilfracombe. Combe Martin. Lynmouth. The names drew him to them as surely as a lamp will attract a fluttering moth. Geoffrey arrived in Devon with no possessions and no money. He had only sadness in his heart. He just wanted to get away. To hide. To forget and to be forgotten. And the rest is now history.
Geoffrey was still a young man when he died. I wonder how many of the people who passed his cardboard home ever even wondered about the tragedy behind the man.
`The Tramp’ is taken from `The Young Country Doctor Book 6: Bilbury Pie’ by Vernon Coleman. To purchase a copy please CLICK HERE.
About the Author
Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc practised medicine for ten years. He has been a full-time professional author for over 30 years. He is a novelist and campaigning writer and has written many non-fiction books. He has written over 100 books which have been translated into 22 languages. On his website, HERE, there are hundreds of articles which are free to read.
There are no ads, no fees and no requests for donations on Dr. Coleman’s website or videos. He pays for everything through book sales. If you want to help finance his work, please just buy a book – there are over 100 books by Vernon Coleman in print on Amazon.
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Categories: Breaking News
Absolutely heartbreaking. The brittle postivists who clammer to say we are merely the product of our choices have not yet had enough go terribly wrong in thier life to break their back. Yes, actions inexoribly lead to consequences. But nobody makes perfect choices, nobody. Just like a normal distribution where most people reap what they sow, and the right side reflects the few who make less mistakes, and/or reap little consequences, and/or have wonderful luck, so too the left side reflects those who have none of those things and/or make an unintentional very bad choice, and then have evil and tragedy follow them consistently like a plaque.
The moral of this story of course is never to never marry someone who wants you give up your love and dream, particularly because they consider it beneath them – she was always going to be bad news.
I think you really mean, “Never, never to marry someone”.
That´s RIGHT, Coleman.
EMPATHY is what the world we are here to live and prosper in needs now.
Combined with Spirit and thus Justice.
You contribute with just that.
I, who have lived in similar curcumstances due to necessity wish to bring this one message forth to people: KINDLY DO NOT EVER CALL A PERSON WITH NO OR LOW FUNDS OR A DWELLING OF HIS OR HER OWN “HOMELESS.”
NO ONE ON THE EARTH ALMIGHTY GOD CREATED FOR ALL CAN POSSIBLE SO BE.
Surely, anyone who judges a book by its cover needs to learn how to read a book.
May God bless you and all of your readers.
Thank you.
There is nothing wrong with the term “homeless”. It implies nothing about character, as Vernon’s story demonstrates. It just means some persons have no permanent dwelling, that is all it means.
I myself could become homeless in this day and age of white people being kicked to the curb to make way for others. The rents are obscene. If my family & I should be forced to move, we’d be, yes, “homeless” and I would not be ashamed of being referred to in that manner.
I question how and why the law supports, allows and encourages those who mistreat their partners in this way. If the law on divorce and matrimony was changed to be fair to both parties, then this could never happen.
This absolutely tragic and heartbreaking story enraged me and brought me to tears of intense frustration and sadness!
How is it that such injustice prevails? She continued to hunt him down and take EVERYTHING from him, despite him kindly and selflessly giving her all that he had.
SHE was the one in the wrong, yet HE paid the price! HOW is this allowed to happen?!!!
This exact situation is all too familiar these days and I personally know men and their loving families who have been utterly broken and destroyed by women exactly like this who have manipulated the system and have gotten everything!
“SHE was the one in the wrong, yet HE paid the price”
The very nub of the relationship we have with our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
How did Christ pay the price for me? This is some sort of abstract, difficult-to-comprehend notion. I am still waiting for a satisfactory explanation. “Have faith that it is true” does not cut it for me & others.
It could, naturally, go the other way if the woman in a divorce makes more dough than her ex-husband, although a Reuters online article stated that “Only 3 percent of around 400,000 alimony recipients are male, according to the 2010 census”.
And it got much worse for alimony payers in USA since then, with the arrival of the 2019 rule “Alimony paid will no longer be tax-deductible and alimony received will no longer be taxable income” so that the alimony receivers may do even better now than in 2010.
I gave up my holding in the country to my ex and then had stealing to contend with.
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“ This is the twentieth century. Civilisation.”
Just a minute. Extreme cruelty is not unique to civilization. Read up on what aboriginals in N.A. did to their “enemies” or just to helpless children in the case of Australia if I remember right. Beyond belief. I recall James Prescott (psychologist) noting that abos seem to enjoy torture. He said this decades ago but would probably deny it today, what with the entrenchment of political correctness and the establishment of sacred cow minorities.
It’s good to see someone prodding the vipers nest! They were all very peaceable people we have been taught!
Thank you for sharing.
There is a lot of animosity today and polarization. However what
is really troubling is the lack of compassion and empathy in some
of us. I have an ex-client who was sad when Mr. T’s asassin,
missed. The boys who were cruel to Geoffrey are another example.
It is one thing to name call someone, but what they did is heartless.
You can imagine what ellse they will do to others, and somrday winf
up in jail.
Without compassion and empathy, we become psychopaths. When we
can empathize with others we have the ability to connect.
Years ago I used to travel into NY City every week. I would see
homeless humans living on the streets. I saw one male pretty regularly.
He was a big guy, and happened to be black. I eventuallly learned
he lost his job and ended up lliving on the street. He has been doing
this for over 5 years. Humans worst fear. He told me the shelters were not safe. I would give him some food when I saw him, and even bought him a pair of shoes. His name was Robert. At some point he seemed to disappear, and/or I stopped going into NYC.
I met one this week in hospital and gave him my coat as I left. pitiful but all I could do.
Bullies are usually unhappy people, having perhaps been bullied themselves by those more powerful within their homes or environment. Which isn’t to excuse what is carelessly, cruelly or angrily done, but to explain how common it is for those with feelings of anger to take out their anger on those with less power than themselves, which is probably what drove those unthinking, reactive idiots to kill that poor tramp. This has been shown with the sexual abuse of children who when adult carry out the same travesties on the equally (as they were when young) vulnerable. It is so sad. A real case of ‘The sins of the forefathers will be carried on unto the nth(?) generation’ Pretty obvious psychology. It is unfortunately easier to let out ones anger on the weaker, rather than to aim it at the ones who caused the anger. We fight each other when it would be far better to direct our anger at the real cause of ones problems, like powerful politicians for instance.
When people don’t know themselves, when they aren’t taught that they have to pay attention to the feelings that drive them, when children have been denied love and safety; whatever the pain or trauma experienced, one is left with unresolved problems that will effect our entire lives.
Maybe, if enough of us decide to change our mindsets, we’ll create a society that heals such traumas, that avoids them to begin with, because we have trodden the this path of madness and mayhem that has led us to where we are over and again, for thousands of years, ad nauseam.
Definitely time for a change, or from ‘nauseum’ we will die.