Leslie Muir, an urban explorer and photographer, was on her way home after a long day of exploration on her birthday when she saw an apparently abandoned red house. She stopped on a whim to photograph the enigmatic house after seeing art in the decaying home and overgrown yard. Yet she would soon be left in awe when she realized what was inside.
Leslie, an urban traveler, has innumerable images of forgotten locales, but one odd red house altered her life forever when she least expected it. She wandered about on someone else’s property, photographing all the intriguing aspects. That’s when her curiosity led her inside the home, where she discovered her horrifying find, which no one would have known about if Leslie’s curiosity, and maybe destiny, hadn’t placed her in the right place at the right time.
Leslie Muir, who goes by the Instagram handle “The Tourist,” revealed that she’d seen this home previously and that it’d always attracted her for reasons she wasn’t sure of until she chose to stop one day. She believed it was abandoned since it seemed to have been deserted for years, and she wasn’t concerned about upsetting anybody by looking inside. The road is overgrown, the roof is crumbling in, and the inside would lead anybody to assume this area had been abandoned, she stated.
Leslie’s life would be permanently transformed in the living room when she heard a cute, “Hello.” Lawrence, who had been sitting inside alone, greeted her in the center of what she believed was an abandoned house. Hello, his name is Lawrence. He lives in a home she thought was abandoned, Leslie commented with a picture of him. She discovered him in the living room. He has trouble getting around, so he spends much of his time there. “Alone,” she said as she started to tell his heartbreaking tale.
Lawrence’s right eye is absent, and his left isn’t faring much better due to severe cataracts, according to Leslie Muir. Yet his illness hasn’t appeared to dampen his enthusiasm. Leslie remembered that the man was nice and polite to her even though he had just seen a stranger practically take over his life. This must have been a relief after she found out that the house she had entered without permission and without warning wasn’t empty at all.
He was even kind enough to let her photograph him, which she will always cherish, Leslie recalled. During the next three hours, the photographer remained and got to know this guy, and she was perhaps the only individual he communicated with in months. On her birthday, she discovered the best present of all – a new buddy. She had no idea that this was merely the beginning of something wonderful.
Leslie Muir had happened to cross Lawrence’s path at at the perfect moment. Unfortunately, Lawrence didn’t have much time left. He was dying, and no one was there to care for him or be there for him when he needed it. He had mentally prepared himself to leave this life alone since he had spent every day in this barely inhabitable home in this manner for years.
That is, until Leslie showed up and promised to keep him company. Leslie followed her word, making sure Lawrence was no longer lonely, and the two have subsequently had countless dinners together. They’ve even gone on BBQs and trips that none of them anticipated.
Leslie took care of Lawrence for many weeks after finding him on that tragic day, but his health began to deteriorate fast. Leslie, on the other hand, was not going to forsake Lawrence again. She assisted him in moving into a retirement home, where she continued to pay him frequent visits.
He’s secure and warm, and he seems reasonably glad to be among some new people, but she knows he loves his home, Leslie wrote of her friend’s relocation. Lawrence didn’t have much time left, yet he’d depart this world feeling loved, all because a stranger chose to stop.
Photographer Leslie Muir explores abandoned houses around Ontario. However, one not-so-abandoned home has made all the difference in the way she sees things.
Posted by Great Big Story on Friday, 23 September 2016
He said something to her that she will remember for the rest of his life. He claimed the day she came up was the finest day of his life, Leslie wrote, feeling embarrassed for seeming “self-righteous” but still empathizing with him. The day she met him was the finest day of her life. He provided her the opportunity to really do something kind for somebody—an act of generosity with no expectation of recompense.
Leslie Muir came to the conclusion that no one takes a photograph of anything they want to forget; therefore, after meeting Lawrence, she took as many pictures of him as she could. Angels do walk among us, and Leslie is one of them. She came to the right place at the right time to be Lawrence’s “family,” discovering that the home she believed was vacant wasn’t, but the man inside was—until she stepped in, providing him warmth and love in his last days. Nobody deserves to be forgotten, and Leslie has made certain that Lawrence will never be.
