‘I slept rough in graveyard after my mum died’
FAMILY TRAGEDY SPARKED TWO YEARS OF MISERY
THREE years ago 41-year-old Richard Heenan spent his first night on the streets.
He had turned to alcohol following the death of his mother and had lost his job as a mechanic.
He thought he had no other option than to sleep rough on the streets of Sutton-in-ashfield.
Mr Heenan spent two years pitching up in a tent in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene.
“It sent me downhill,” he said, referring to his mother’s death. “Three years ago now. She died of cancer.”
Mr Heenan, who was brought up nearby in the village of Pinxton travelled between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to pass the time.
“It was horrible,” he says. “You did not know if anyone was around you, especially at night-time when you tried to go to sleep – you didn’t know who was around you or where you were stopping from night to night. It was a horrible feeling. Never again.”
Before homelessness charity Framework’s street outreach team discovered Mr Heenan, his tent was stolen.
All of his possessions, including his clothes, his phone, wallet and glasses, were taken along with it.
Fortunately, Megan Russell from the outreach team happened upon Mr Heenan and he eventually accepted their help.
“People don’t realise that is your life,” he added. “That is your livelihood and where you’ll be living until you find some- where. I had just nipped out to one of the food banks. I was only gone for half an hour, and when I got back my tent had gone. Everything had gone.
“The council had not taken it. Someone must have been watching us. That’s what it was like.
“I just used to go and walk round a lot. I used to go and try find local food banks. The worst thing about it was the loneliness and not knowing what was going to happen.
“My mum died and me and my dad fell out. Your first night you know about it. Just the sounds. I’m never going through it again. It’s like when I see people on the streets now around here I always ask them if they’re all right, because I’ve been through it.
“Framework used to come out every day at 6am, sometimes even earlier. It was hard to accept help to start with because I don’t like asking, but it got to that point I knew I needed help.”
This year will be vastly different for Mr Heenan, however.
Having started to abstain from drinking alcohol he has rekindled his relationship with his father and his sister.
He hopes to regain the trust of his employer so he can get his old job back. “At least I’m safer now,” he says. Richard Stafford, leader of the Framework street outreach team, was visibly pleased for Mr Heenan, having managed to get him in his own flat before Christmas.
Here he lives with a flatmate who, Mr Heenan says, helps him on his road to recovery because he has too been through similar experiences. “He first appeared in the graveyard at St Mary’s in Sutton, then he disappeared because he went to Derbyshire,” Mr Stafford says. “He stayed this time so we were able to help. There tend to be a lot of transient people who go across borders and it can be hard to keep track of them. Richard is doing very well now.”
You didn’t know where you were stopping from night to night. It was horrible. Never again
Richard Heenan