This is the heartbreaking story of the tragic life of Brian Eldridge. This man from Minnesota passed away at the age of 76 years old with no friends or family and lived a life of exploitation and mockery.
His story has now sparked a ripple of sadness online after his brother frankly summed up his blighted life with the brutally honest truth about his brother.
Brian Eldrige passed away at his home in Minnesota aged 76 years old, all alone, after a lifetime of bullying, exploitation and loneliness. He lay dead for at least four days before he was discovered due to his lonely existence.
He had no friends or family who kept up with him. He was quiet, smart, generous and lonely.
Brian was an extremely timid boy at school who suffered from extreme bullying as a consequence. The experience destroyed his confidence and he also found himself shunned as an adult, living a reclusive existence while working as a newspaper deliveryman and afterwards a janitor.
The last job saw him forced to work 364 days a year for $10 an hour, and then he was plunged even deeper into destitution after he was fired on Christmas Eve.
This is the story of a man that was forced into labour exploitation, mental illness and isolation and to be honest, it’s gut-wrenching, but it’s touched many, who have said that they feel remorseful at never getting the opportunity to help a lonely man they didn’t even know, although it’s extremely easy to say these things and it’s no use closing the barn door after the horse has gone.
This story is tragic and it’s very true!
Brian suffered from mental illness which displayed itself in various ways, including persistently wearing a worn-out tan jacket and refusing to trim his hair until it extended down to his calves.
According to his brother, Brian had been painfully awkward since he’d been a young boy, which led to him being ridiculed as a child and a teenager because of his shyness and vulnerability, and as an adult, he simply didn’t fit in, and Brian was restricted from even applying for most jobs because he never knew how to use a computer or cell phone.
He did, however, attend a computer course to try and learn the basics, but Brian was so ashamed at how little he really knew compared to the other students that he quickly dropped out of the course.
He was forced to support himself through aluminium can recycling, janitorial positions and a paper route. He was a dedicated paperboy.
Pioneer Press said that Brian was loved by all and that he delivered the newspapers every day for numerous years, and even though the newspaper apparently parted ways on good terms, Brian’s last job ended in tragedy and typified his sad life.
His last position was cleaning a bingo hall at midnight for $10 per hour seven nights a week, 364 days a year with less than the minimum weekly hours to have any rights or benefits.
His employer fired him on Christmas Eve with no warning. He’d worked there for over 15 years.
Brian’s life had meandered out of control. He refused to trim his hair or wear clean clothes, and when he died his hair was down to the middle of his calves.
Brian let his hair grow for about 45 years. He wouldn’t cut it. Even his mum once offered him $10,000 to cut his hair but he wouldn’t do it.
Brian was a humble man and laboured hard for very little, and his life and his death were a tragedy.
This is extremely sad indeed. I mean what monster fires an old man with mental health problems on Christmas Eve?
Unfortunately, this is what bullying and exclusion do to people, and Brian didn’t deserve this. People are simply mean, he didn’t deserve this and no wonder he retreated from society, but this type of situation has become very commonplace.
We should teach our children to be kind to the Brians of the world because nobody should be ridiculed or exploited.
The problem is that people don’t care about each other anymore. This is the age of narcissism, me, me, me and no thought for those who are suffering. This is what’s now going on in the world!
Every single person reading this, including myself knows someone in the same position or knew someone in school who was bullied. Hopefully, this will go viral, because all of us, no matter how good we think we might be, are one step away from either being this person or one step closer to making a bullied person feel better about themselves today and maybe contributing to their happiness for life.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 