Many Edinburgh Reporter readers would have made acquaintance with Darren Greenfield otherwise known as Dan, the ex- serviceman who frequented the top of The Waverley Steps. I saw him often on my visits to the capital.
His gentle optimism and decidedly English accented, well-spoken approachability, marked him as a misused man very down on his luck. He was always upbeat about the break he was just about to get lucky with, regarding the ever vicious vortex of no home, so no address and no reference base for a job.
I understand from his companion, who was by this placard dedication to Daniel, that he was taken into hospital in December with critical organ failure. He was forty seven years old. What an enemy combatant could not inflict on Daniel, a not quite yet disunited United Kingdom, managed with an equally anonymous but more lethal, pernicious rage.
If you understandably decide not to give to the homeless or the beggar on the street because you might just be assisting their next appointment with ‘Spice’ oblivion – at least do something. All lives are complex, though empathy defines our simple, unifying humanity.
It is the next best thing to immortality: if not even better. Make the most of it because no one so far has proved otherwise. Being sorry is useless unless we learn from it. Could not the point of Daniel’s troubled, too short life, be worth that at least?
The charity Soldiers Off The Streets tried to help Dan. They said :”Luckily not many homeless veterans refuse help when offered, but sadly one Ex Royal Tank Darren who sat at the top of the Waverley Steps in Edinburgh died on the 17th of December 2017 after refusing help from Soldiers off the Street, SSAFA and others tried helping him but we think the streets was his only way of living and coping with life!
“A lot of members informed us about this veteran on Waverley Steps and even Rose Gentle met him when our Scottish outreach team was out!
“Now he can rest in peace and fly with the angels.”
