Testimony of Light by Helen Greaves

Author:Helen Greaves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

18th January

There is an ex-policeman here; he has been in the Home for some little while, I mean before I arrived, and is soon being transferred to another station on this same plane for the reasons which I will explain.

He is a simple man. He was not educated, but had a great sense of duty and always fulfilled his to the best of his ability . . . “that station in life to which it had pleased God to call him,” as we used to say. He was ailing for some time, I understand, before a sudden cessation of the heart function ended his life, and he came here. He was an honest man, who had never “bothered his head” (his words) about religion or philosophy; and he had supposed, as many still do, that death meant the end of all knowing. It has been a great wonder and astonishment to him to find life here so “normal.” But he has responded well. It has taken time and much help on the part of the devoted workers here; but now that he is able to adjust to this new phase of living, he is anxious to help his family still on earth.

It appears that he had a son and a daughter, and was contented enough with his wife. The son is now in the force following in his father’s footsteps; it is the girl who, he believes, needs his help. She was a pretty, wayward little thing, he told me, and at eighteen had an illegitimate child. He admitted, quite without repression, that he and his wife felt great shame at the time; nevertheless they accepted the child and brought it up as their own. After about two years the young mother deserted her family and her baby and went off to live with another man. There were rows and recriminations. But she went her way and they had grown too fond of the child to send it away to a home. They saw less and less of their daughter; the baby grew into a healthy little girl, cared for tenderly by the grandparents.

Later, the daughter quarreled with her protector, and went off with another man, then lived spasmodically with sailors at a southern port, and went steadily “down the scale of respectability and morals” as he put it.

Naturally, the grandparents and the brother were upset, and longed and worked for the girl’s return to a decent life. But every time they engineered a meeting it ended in scenes and accusations. Our policeman admitted, quite frankly, that his temper was not of the best, and that he invariably lost it during these meetings. So nothing constructive was ever managed. The grandparents were left with the child and the daughter went from “bad to worse” (his turn of phrase is distinct, and very reminiscent of his upbringing), and she ended by openly becoming a prostitute or, as he phrases it, being “on the streets.”

Poor man! Poor, sad, angry father! Under the strain and worry his health deteriorated.

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