Read the following sentence from "the destructors."

old misery--whose real name was thomas--had once been a builder and decorator. he lived alone in the crippled house, doing for himself: once a week you could see him coming back across the common with bread and vegetables, and once as the boys played in the car-park he put his head over the smashed wall of his garden and looked at them.

which of the following sentences is the best to paraphrase of this excerpt?