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“Please tell everyone I’m alive and doing OK.”
That’s a quote from Leroy Dublin, a formerly homeless man whose disappearance caused so much concern in Norfolk’s Ghent area that it became the focus of a recent story in the Sunday Break.
Dublin called the newspaper after the story published on June 20 to say he’s living in a “rooming house” in the Huntersville neighborhood. He had indeed been at death’s door — admitted to Sentara Heart Hospital in late December with a host of serious problems, including symptoms of COVID-19 pneumonia. Doctors had to resuscitate him several times. He says he has no memory of the nearly two months he was there.
But he recovered, was released in February and connected with Social Security. He now has enough income to keep a modest roof over his head.
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Dublin spent 30 years living on local streets, becoming a fixture on the corner of Colley Avenue and West 21st Street, where he sat on a low stone wall, reading by the light of a streetlamp. He didn’t talk much or panhandle. Offers of food, clothing, even money were often met with a quiet “no thanks,” adding to his air of mystery.
When he vanished, residents began worrying about his whereabouts and posting on Nextdoor and other community sites — some 500 comments of concern over his fate.
Dublin was surprised to learn that so many had noticed his absence or cared. He says he encountered kindness on the streets but also the opposite.
He plugged in some of the gaps in his story, saying his childhood was hard in Florida, where he became estranged from his family. He landed in Norfolk after leaving the Navy “busted and broke” and wound up homeless.
“I worked temp labor for 10 years, then sold my plasma,” he said. “After that, I did the dumpsters.”
Between that, soup kitchens and an occasional night in a shelter, “that was pretty much it.”
He wants to correct two things in the original article: Instead of sleeping in a tent, as some folks thought, he says he stayed “on the wall all night,” leaning on his duffel bag to doze. And he did spend six months in city housing in 2008, but it didn’t last.
He explained his reluctance to accept handouts: His needs were simple and he had his pride.
“But I appreciated the people who seemed to genuinely care,” he said. “I really did.”
Weekend Scoop
At 69, Dublin says indoor life is easier, but he does miss “all the nature I saw every day. Especially the sunrise. I never got tired of that.”
He’s actually having trouble adjusting to four walls. With his basic requirements met, he’s struggling for a purpose.
“To be honest, I wasn’t very grateful to the doctors for bringing me back,” he said. “I have no family or kids or job — nothing to come back to. Now I have to start over again. And I really don’t feel up to it.”
He wants no more charity. Just needs to figure out “where I’m going and what I’m doing.”
His final words about the outpouring of concern from so many strangers:
“It was good that people came together. There’s a lot of division in this country right now. Maybe everyone will go on and help someone else who needs it now.”
Joanne Kimberlin, 757-446-2338, joanne.kimberlin@pilotonline.com