The Death of Mouse

I wrote this post in 2014 after a visit to Melbourne and this prompt made me want to share it again.

Being homeless is probably one of my greatest fears. I can’t imagine what it would be like not to know where you would sleep each night. I think that one of the very few good things to have come from Covid-19 is that the homeless people of Melbourne are being housed in hotels. At least they are warm and safe for now. I hope that by the time this pandemic leaves us we’ll have found a way to put a roof over their heads permanently.

I was in Melbourne and  enjoying a lovely walk beside the Yarra. The weather was great and I was taking lots of photos and thinking that Melbourne’s reputation for being Australia’s most livable city was well deserved.
Then I saw this.

I didn’t know what it was about but it was obvious that “Mouse” was a homeless person and that he had died. I stopped to take the photo intending to find out more when I returned home. Not far from this spot I saw signs of that other homeless people also slept under the bridge pylons, there was a mattress, plastic crates and other signs of habitation.
I learned that Mouse, whose real name was Wayne Perry was stabbed to death earlier this year.
It’s a terrible thing that people have to live this way regardless of how they got into that situation. When I see it happening in an affluent part of the city it really makes me think that we should all be doing more to prevent it.
It also made me think that whatever had gone wrong in Mouse’s life he at least had the love of his friends on the streets and is missed by them.

Read more here.