Celebrating gentle man
YOU’VE never met Karl, but I am sure you would like him.
In fact, I’ve never met anybody who didn’t.
He is warm. He is gentle. He has a wisdom about him.
He has that Maori thing called “mana”. This “mana” that Karl possesses is honour.
He has an authority, a presence about him. He embodies respect.
He is a proud Australian of Maori heritage and he loves this country dearly except for when the Wallabies play his beloved All Blacks.
He is an Anzac through and through, having served in the New Zealand army during the Malaysian emergency.
In another of his careers, Karl was a driver for a special limo type service for a certain federal politician.
I can’t recall what flavour the politician was, but Karl voted the other way. No matter. He soon became a cherished part of that team.
There a few other things about Karl that you would like.
He loves to joke and he loves to play his guitar and share the gift of music.
It’s something he has handed onto his children and also to his grandchildren.
Wherever he goes Karl creates community.
Over the past couple of years things have changed for Karl.
A thing called dementia started to play a part in his and his family’s life.
His wonderful wife Colleen worked very hard to keep him secure and stable in his home environment.
Respite came when Karl was encouraged to visit a local centre with his guitar. He quickly struck up some friendships and spent some time each week entertaining the elderly.
It must run in the family. Alex, one of the grandsons works in an agedcare facility here in Toowoomba.
Just like his “Koro” (grandfather), he has found his way into many people’s hearts.
On occasions Alex has taken his guitar to work and some of the residents have been known to make special requests for assistance from, “the boy who sings”.
Karl is now well settled in an agedcare facility in Brisbane.
He continues to create community wherever he goes.
Another grandchild, Sophie, has now moved down the Range for tertiary study. A few weeks back, she came across somebody who had cared for Karl in his new home.
This carer was also of Maori heritage. She shared an inspiring story.
She had put out a call through Facebook asking any Maori sisters or brothers living in the Brisbane area if they would like to come and sing for an old man.
Close to 100 people answered the call.
The venue was small and so only a few got to sing that afternoon.
The singing went for a few hours and I am told that tears were streaming down Karl’s face.
Indeed I am sure there were not many dry eyes in the house.
None of the visiting singers had ever met each other before. But there he was, creating community again.
The American mystic Thomas Merton wrote about the elderly: “They are the ones who keep the universe from being destroyed, they are the little ones, they do not know themselves, but the whole earth depends on them.”
He was surely writing about one Karl Rangiira.
Postscript: This article was first published in August, 2016. The life of Karl Rangiira was celebrated yesterday in Brisbane. Vale Te Huia Katene Rangiira Rongonui.