RAYMOND VAGI (born 1944) is caught in a vicious cycle - a 'Catch-22' situation.
Weighing in at 165kg, he is obese with very poor self-image. Therefore he stays at home alot. Ray often reclines in front of his oversized Idiot Box and often eats/drinks in that position. Mostly he has his meals in a reclining position. This makes him and other obese people INVISIBLE. He then makes very few friends.
The oversized TV was bought for him by half-sister Mae (Maja) of 9 Kalang Road Glenroy. Their shopping trip was a means of pretending concern for her half-brother. Considering she prevented any access - however indirect - to his dying Mum Mari, it was indeed a hollow gesture.
Ray is shunned by HALF-SISTER MAE (maja) LAUL and he
is 100% abandoned by her engineer/real-estate-agent son ANTHONY LAUL (and his family)
Raymond seeks self-worth in consumerism eg stupid mementos and objects (eg statues, fridge magnets, large coloured 'diamonds', books and more books (poignantly, often on relationships, furniture (coffee tables, armchairs, chests of drawers).
Despite having worked in government administration, including Victorian Railways Library, Commonwealth Aircraft Factory and Department of Mines (where he supervised water bore drilling at beautiful Portland), Ray is today functionally illiterate. Ray doesn't read the mostly new books. He arranges them on on secondhand bookshelves and generally throws them into the bin six months later. One poignant book theme is relationships.
Raymond's dream is to return to the far North of Australia. He has very pleasant memories of COOKTOWN (Students of Australian history will know that James Cook anchored at Cooktown for urgent repairs.)
Ray proudly tells you of his experiences meeting Australian Aborigines (summarised in an essay he wrote at a TAFE college). Several times, Ray has packed up all his belongings to go visit or live up North - in the firm belief that his half-sister Mae (Maja) was arranging a trip. It remains but a beautiful dream...
Showing posts with label Mae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mae. Show all posts
Friday, March 23, 2012
**Ray Vagi - Australian Story of Rejection
Ray arrived in Australia at the tender age of three-and-a-half. Ray attended a normal Primary School in Somers on the Westernport Bay of Victoria. Somers is close to Balnarring - a favourite spot. Today, many years later, an over-the-top (well over $3b) Desalination plant is being erected built at nearby Wonthaggi to supply distant sprawling Melbourne with water.
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 ...
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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