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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/05/tasmania-friends-daniel-tommerup-christropher-milne-early-deaths-homeless-launceston>
"The hope had gone from Daniel Tommerup’s eyes. That’s what Stephen Avery
remembers most from the last time he saw his friend alive. Tommerup, 51, had
been sleeping rough on the streets of Launceston for years. The bad days were
too many to count.
Avery, a street chaplain working with the city’s homeless community, says
Tommerup would regularly show up in the morning with black eyes, bruises and
cuts, evidence of violence inflicted on him the night before.
“He really endeared himself to people,” Avery remembers. “But being on the
streets, he was an alcoholic, he was very vulnerable. A lot of teenagers and
young adults cruise Launceston, just looking for victims like Daniel to roll.
“So quite often in the morning, I’d find him and he’d tell me that he’d been
bashed and had to go to hospital in an ambulance.”
Sometimes things spiralled out of control. Once Avery remembers Tommerup
throwing his bedding out on to the road and running in front of traffic.
“He was just screaming and yelling, saying, ‘Who’s going to help me? Who’s
going to support me? I just want to see my son’,” he says.
But this day, Avery recalls, was different."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
