[woofa.express]

My four unusual friends.

This is four separate stories on individuals, all with differing qualities and one in common. I will write on two now and the other two next story.

One a spastic, the second, the son of my friend, a Mongol, and the third my friend who is 74 and becoming spastic. The fourth is of a bloke who’s just had a leg amputated.

John Goodall was my friend; he was handicapped because he was spastic. He spoke in a most awkward way and walked likewise. Frequently the brunt of ridicule and teasing from other kids at school. There was nothing wrong with his brain. Because of his handicap I helped and supported the boy and I also enjoyed his whit even though it took considerable time to tell a story.
He married a girl who also was spastic and sadly for them both she had only a short life. They had lived in a town of 8,000 people. John owned a motorcar and bought a small house. He did mowing and yard work for a living and worked hard at it. We kept in touch and I’d see him when I was in New Zealand and he twice came to Australia to see me. He’d have a helper and we all enjoyed ourselves on those trips. John knew his life was ending and told me he had had a good life and no regrets and accepted his coming fate.
He died shortly after and I was disappointed I could not make it to his funeral for I was unable to walk with a newly replaced hip. This spastic man had the biggest funeral the town had ever experienced. He never treated his handicap as a disadvantage.

Footnote. It is John that I spoke about in story number 49 in May 2018. We drove an unloved Model A to town and went to the pub. Very much under aged and under the weather on the return trip.

My second story is of a Mongol boy by the name of Jarrod and commonly called Jarry. He and his parents live in the farming town of Oaklands NSW, population of 238. Everybody loves Jarry and is protective of him. He is now 50. He is employed by businesses and contractors to do menial work. He is renowned for his happy attitude and hugging folks instead of saying goodbye. He is also known for his authority and does reprimand folk for any bad behaviour which is well received and mostly observed. He is never made to feel uncomfortable for his handicap. That’s the benefit of living in a small community.
There is a second family (who I don’t know) noteworthy for daughter/sister Michelle Payne and her brother Stevie. Two of 10 kids raised by their dad, mother died in a car crash when Michelle was 6 months old. Well Michelle was a jockey and won Australia’s greatest horse race; the two mile Melbourne Cup. She also won the nations heart. But it was when she invited her strapper, brother Stevie to the presentation stand the nation went to tears. The presentation dignitaries as well, for Stevie was a Mongol. The picture of them both is at that presentation.

This story will conclude with my next story and that will reveal the other two and what they all have in common.