My Hero: Leo Joseph Rayner
Leo Joseph Rayner was my grandpa from my mother’s side. He was born in Sunbury, Victoria, which is a small town in the country outside of Melbourne, Australia, on the fourth of July, 1923. As a boy, he was free to roam the bush with his dog, Contact. Leo named his dog so that he could shout “CON-TACT!”, “con” meaning come on. My grandpa went to the local school for much of his life, but his family eventually moved closer to Melbourne, where he, Leo, attended St. Kevin’s. When my Grandpa was growing up, Melbourne was about a quarter of the size as it is now.
My Grandpa had many occupations throughout his life. As a young man, he studied to become a Christian Brother who assists the priest and taught in schools. But Leo discovered that this wasn’t the right path for him. He then enlisted in the RAAF, or Royal Australian Air Force and became a crew member on bomber aircraft. Once WWII was over, my grandpa went back to school for 12th grade as many soldiers did. He then went to medical school, but it was too expensive, so he dropped out. Instead, he became a teacher and taught at the school that my mom and her brothers attended. Leo showed great integrity to take up as many occupations as he did.
Courage was vital during the war, and Leo didn’t lack any. He was both a navigator and a gunner in a bomber plane, which was incredibly dangerous. Ultimately, he was the one that the enemy would target! Imagine if you were sitting in a plane with people firing bullets randomly at you. That would be a little like what my grandpa was going through. He also would have had the dwindling feeling that the plane could crash down onto the earth or into the ocean. Not letting these thoughts discourage him, Leo fought on valiantly until the war was over.
Leo was also a smart man who never hesitated to step in and help those in need. Long after the war had finished, when Leo was teaching at my mom and her brothers school, things were just as interesting as in the WWII. He and his students were at the beach when a boy grabbed the tail of a sting ray. The animal’s barb pierced the boy’s radial artery and he was bleeding copiously. While everyone else was stunned by the event, my grandpa had the intuition to hold on to the boy’s arm, applying pressure, until they reached the hospital, saving the boy from bleeding to death. If it weren’t for Leo’s quick thinking and intelligent solution, the boy may have died.
Leo was a generous and thoughtful man. Throughout his life, Leo worked with many charities. One of them was Legacy, an organization in Australia set up to help families of deceased veterans. There, he would help them fill out forms and obtain pensions. Another one of the charities that he worked for was St. Vincent De Paul, who helped disadvantaged families.
My grandpa was a great woodworker, and always had something to teach my mom. He made the kitchen cabinets in my grandma’s old house, a desk for our family, a doll house, some small sailboats that really worked, tools, and many toys that my mom used to play with when she was little. When he was 75, he bought a computer and taught himself to use it. Leo was a very smart man who always taught my mom to read whenever you can, and that you can never stop learning. My mom in turn taught me these lessons as well, and they are skills I will use for the rest of my life.
