They took in homeless man, he stayed for life

Book review by Charles Gardner —

A homeless man knocked on the door of a Cardiff couple one Christmas eve some 50 years ago. He was duly welcomed in and stayed the night.

Ronnie Lockwood had tracked down Rob and Dianne Parsons whom he remembered from youth meetings at church.

The young couple were just a few years into married life and soon set about trying to find a suitable shelter for their visitor, the victim of a broken care system after being abandoned by his parents at an early age.

But he soon became part of the family and stayed with them for 45 years – that is, the rest of his life.

According to Rob, in his profoundly moving book A Knock at the Door (William Collins, 2024), their children Katie and Lloyd never once complained about this unique family arrangement.

In fact, they loved him to bits, and the feeling was mutual. Although the hurts of Ronnie’s abandonment proved hard to wear off, he clearly experienced significant healing through the sacrificial love and kindness of this amazing Welsh couple, who later founded Care for the Family, which itself has contributed greatly to a much-needed Christian input into family life in the UK.

As Rob admits, Ronnie has blessed and taught them at least as much as they were able to bless him. During the early days, when they were forced to deal with a host of difficult issues relating to Ronnie’s ‘learning challenges’, they could never have imagined that he would still be with them just short of their golden wedding anniversary.

Sadly, his parting in hospital, after suffering a stroke, was made all the more heartbreaking by the social distancing rules of the Covid pandemic.

But Ronnie made a success of his life. He volunteered for many jobs in the church and homeless centre, was fastidious about keeping a neat and tidy kitchen, saw washing up as his privileged role, and from his early days at the Parsons, worked hard as a ‘waste operative’ (dustman).

He really did care for people. One neighbour who lived on her own after her husband died recalled how he put himself out to help her get her bins to the pavement each week. “He was a very special man,” she said.

Rob had to scold him more than once over a gambling habit he had developed in the early days, but he ended up leaving £40,000 in his will to a well-being centre, which precisely covered the cost of upgrading a roof there.

This beautiful book was a Christmas present to my wife, for whom Care for the Family holds special memories of when she worked there as a volunteer while living in South Wales.

They do a wonderful work there, helping to restore Christian foundations to family life. And when thinking of what Rob and Dianne did for Ronnie, the words of Jesus come to mind: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you invited me in.” (Matthew 25:35)

For more about the book, go here