Big surprise, big blessing

A KNOCK ON THE DOOR
By Rob Parsons
William Collins. 368 pages. £16.99
ISBN 978 0 008 708 665

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, their children Katie and Lloyd never once complained about this unique family arrangement.

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.

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.

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).

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 wellbeing centre, which precisely covered the cost of upgrading a roof there.

Ronnie 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.