Ray attended the Primary Schools at Pascoe Vale and Glenroy.
Years earlier, his mother Mare (or Mari) and father had witnessed the brutal Russian occupation of Estonia. Twenty-five percent of Estonians were killed in WWII - the highest percentage in Europe.
Stomach cancer claimed Ray's father (stomach cancer: common in Estonia due to smoked fishes, etc) occurs before Mare, pregnant with Ray, escapes from Estonia. Ray says that his mother told him that she trudged 80 miles into Germany. She bribed officials so she could use a railway wagon.When Ray was 4, his full sister (Tui?), aged 1, passes away. Ray and Tui are the only offspring of Mare (Mari?) and XXX. The three remaining Vagis arrived by ship and settled temporarily in the migrant shelter (Nissen huts) of Somers on Westernport Bay.
Ray remembers going to Church - inside the HMAS Cerberus Navy Base.
Ray remembers a time n his life when he was taken on visits by a Capucin priest at St Anthony's Shrine in Hawthorn. Ray would be sexually interfered with and would sometimes sleep with the friar. i know this Church. My Dad would take us there for the 4.30pm Mass even though it was almost totally in Italian!!! We could get home earlier for dinner than our local Church (Sacred Heart - 5.15PM) i can very vaguely recall something about the rogue young priest in the newspapers at the time.
Later, he worked in a newspaper shop, the Victorian Department of Mines. He travelled alot and maintains his interest in minerals. He was part of Portland's history. He worked on the sinking of artesian bores for Portland. This is how the beautiful high-cliffed wind-turbined town of 10,000 gets drinking water today.
His only family never even told Ray his Mum had passed away.
Who were these scrooges?
Half-sister MAE (Maya) LAUL and her son
Bacchus Marsh estate agent ANTHONY LAUL ...
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| Stockdale & Leggo's Anthony Laul |
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