ON THE WALLABY- 11th May 2006

” The success of ones life should not be judged by the level to which they rose but by the obstacles they overcame getting there” – Booker T Washington, US emancipist and educator.

COURAGE- A QUALITY SHOWN IN SPADEFULS THIS WEEK IN AUSTRALIA

What a week for courage and its display!

The Beaconsfield mine disaster showed it through the courage of the two miners who existed 3000 feet below ground for 14 days, undergoing enormous physical and emotional strain to eventually emerge alive and given the circumstances, well.

There it was on graphic display, as we now know, through the miner who “broke the law” and in fact crawled back through the rubble when he though he heard voices and dropped his glove to the two men, thus establishing they were in fact alive and hopefully could be rescued.

It was there with the miners who toiled unceasingly in what mining industry people say was an exercise that if you had to draw up the hardest rescue scenario possible, it would not have even close to the reality of this one.

It was there in the lady who is the Uniting Church Minister in that small town and who, by her strength of character and belief that The Big Fella would pull them through, keep the lines well and truly open above and at the same time, managed to organise feeding of the ravenous press pack that had gathered.

It was there with the family of the miner who didn’t make it, having been killed in the initial rock fall, and who delayed his funeral until the very last moment, an act that to me says volumes about their sense of decency and at the same time, their strength to have been able to go through the bereavement as they did.

Yes, courage was there big time in that little town!

It is also there in spade loads in the form of little Sophie Delasio, the toddler who won the nations heart with her courageous battle against the odds a while ago when a car crashed into her kindergarten and she and others were pinned under it and she underwent horrendous surgery, from which she emerged battered, scarred but smilingly unbowed.

Not content with that, fate saw that she again was involved with a vehicle when she and her companion,who was wheeling her across the pedestrian crossing, were hit by a car and she was rushed to hospital in a critical condition (again).

All medical reports say that whilst her condition is critical ,she is stable and although she will be on oxygen etc for another three weeks, she is predicted to emerge alive.

I reckon that little girl has more “mongrel” in her than a pack of dingoes and she will emerge and when she does, there will be millions watching her on TV who will, like I did, and I am sure they did also when the news story broke that she had been hit again, have a tear in their eye and a lump in their throat.

One thing I do know is that when she attains her “marrying age” (whatever that means and is) it will take one hell of a bloke to wheel her and get her to say “yes”.

She reminds me so much of Gayle Shann, a young lady who was living with her husband on a beef cattle property west of Mackay in Northern Queensland and in a farming accident, had one arm torn off and the other virtually stripped.

She was operated on at the homestead kitchen table by a former nurse and when the doctor and medivac helicopter arrived, she had lost so much blood she was a like a sheet and all through she was a goner.

Trouble was, she, like Sophie, wouldn’t agree to that and the “mongrel” in Gayle kicked in and she fought back and survived.

In fact, she fought back that well that a few months after the accident, there was a fund raising night at the mining town of Moranbah and at which, with a great deal of pride, I acted as auctioneer and we raised over $260,000.

That night also, as was shown too in Beaconsfield, the deep down generosity of people shone through. Examples such as entertainer Graeme Connors (a Mackay born bloke and who you can hire, if available, for about $30,000 to appear at your function) arrived with his band and sang for about an hour – no fee, were plentiful on the night.

To top it off, Gayle unexpectedly appeared at the function with her husband Mac and bloody near brought the roof down, such was the applause of outpouring of emotion by all of us gathered there.

Yep, whilst it is easy to get cynical about life in modern times, and I know I do through these bulletins from time to time, it is events and people such as I have just written about that restore both our faith in humanity and the belief that we live in the greatest country on earth.

Carpe diem

Tony

Tony Fountain

Professional Speaker, auctioneer and author

Sydney NSW Australia

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