Advertisement
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: HALF PRICE Big Issue magazine subscription
SUBSCRIBE
Opinion

Paul McNamee: Every story matters

You may well know details of your vendor’s life. You understand. Tell others. Don’t be shy about it

Paul Kelly

Last week Paul Kelly was buried. Paul was our friend and colleague who was brutally killed on June 15. A man has been charged with his murder.

Paul was buried in a quiet graveyard just south of Glasgow.

It was brief and simple and still, conducted at graveside, with no church or temple service beforehand. The sun shone.

The grave is on a hill looking to the Campsie Fells on one side and down into Glasgow on the other. It’s a family plot and following his father’s death Paul spoke about the place, a lovely wee place, he told me. He said he hoped to be there too some day, beside his parents. Just not so soon.

Paul’s family and friends were all gathered there last week, sad, but comforting each other and working together to find peace.

Paul sold The Big Issue for many years, both in Glasgow city centre and in East Kilbride. He made his presence felt. He was a vital pulse of the local community in both places. He was part of The Big Issue and The Big Issue became part of him.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Frequently people who sell The Big Issue, or people who are rough sleeping and, those who inhabit the streets, are not seen as individuals. They are a homogeneous group. The needy, the poor, the unkempt beards and weather-beaten faces, the unfortunates in need.

They are not individuals with the same internalised thoughts as you and me, the same desire to say things about the world they are in.

Paul’s funeral illustrated two things. The first is that of course each person has their own story to tell and share. That their way of printing themselves on the world is different to anybody else’s. And how the world pushes back impacts on the situation they find themselves in.

For all of us, lives are messy and tricky and at times, if we’re lucky, glorious

This is not a great revelation, but it’s always worth restating. Every week we open and close The Big Issue magazine with a vendor so that they and their life are the key focus of what we do and what you see. That which would otherwise be a broadstroke story is humanised.

The other thing Paul’s funeral showed is that in each person’s story there are normally family and friends. Nobody arrives on a spaceship from Mars.

When people come to The Big Issue there has been a disruption somewhere along the line. And that may mean estrangement from family. The Big Issue is a means to rebuild things. That could take time for any number of reasons. It could be the vendor is not ready in themselves to let the family or old ties back in.

Still, in a lot of cases, that old network exists. The people there are keen to do what they can, and that may involve waiting. But they are there and there is love.

We must never forget this. Nobody lives a clean and linear life. For all of us, lives are messy and tricky and at times, if we’re lucky, glorious.

You are reading this and you may well know details of your vendor’s life. You understand. Tell others. Don’t be shy about it.

Things will not get better through platitudes and demands from the top to be optimistic. They’ll get better when we genuinely care for those at the bottom, and allow their stories to be told and invest in their lives, allowing them to grow.

Paul McNamee is editor of The Big Issue   @pauldmcnamee  Paul.McNamee@bigissue.com

Advertisement

Buy a Big Issue Vendor Support Kit

This Christmas, give a Big Issue vendor the tools to keep themselves warm, dry, fed, earning and progressing.

Recommended for you

View all
'A library is a safe and happy place': The unparalleled joy of a mobile library
Robin Ince

'A library is a safe and happy place': The unparalleled joy of a mobile library

Political censorship in theatre has gone too far – especially on Palestinian art. Here's why
Performer Issam Al Ghussain is part of Cutting The Tightrope. Image: Ali Wright
Cressida Brown

Political censorship in theatre has gone too far – especially on Palestinian art. Here's why

It will take modern thinking to solve the age-old problem of rough sleeping
John Bird

It will take modern thinking to solve the age-old problem of rough sleeping

I thought being a man meant being tough and strong. But real strength comes from asking for help
Dan Guiness

I thought being a man meant being tough and strong. But real strength comes from asking for help

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know