My friend, Tony Kelly, lost his father Laurie last week. I will always remember him for being tough but fair. If you didn’t know him, he was the Kelly of the Kelly and Green Cranes that you see around the Coast and one dealing that I had with the big fella sort of sums him up.

It was back in the ’90s and I was running the old Mooloolaba Hotel where we were staging a rodeo on a Saturday night.

The guy running the show decided that even though we had lights, we needed to get them up in the air a bit, and we needed a crane to do it.

Neither of us had two bob to rub together so when he asked if I knew anyone with a crane, I immediately thought of old mate.

I thought I knew Laurie pretty well but in hindsight, it was my brother that knew him, I just thought I did.

Anyway, I rang Laurie and explained that because it was for charity could he lend me a crane for the night.

The response came quickly and loudly: “So you ring me out of the blue and you and your cowboy mate want me to lend you a $200,000 crane for free and leave it up there on a Saturday night with all those yahoos running around?”

So as I stammered and stuttered, thinking his answer was “no”, he then asked me what time I wanted it there.

As I said, hard but fair. I guess he just wanted me to know how stupid the request was.

Laurie helped a lot of people in the community and expected nothing in return but a bit of fun.

He will be sorely missed but, as always, when I see one of those green monsters holding up the traffic, I will always think of Laurie.

On the topic of helping, I thought I would share this with you: “To be happy for an hour, take a nap. To be happy for a day, go fishing. To be happy for a year, win money. To be happy for a lifetime, help somebody.”

This is a Chinese proverb that my mother recited to me the other day and its message was good, but its timing was even better.

Recently I have been involved with a fundraiser for two projects in India.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a letter with a person’s quite-strong feelings about money going offshore when there are so many people in need in our own country.

I answered the letter in this manner, but I have taken a few names out and adjusted due to recent events:

“I take on board your point in regard to sending funds offshore as there are many people that need help in our own country, but I don’t agree that we should just look after our own and forget the rest.

“In regard to looking after our own, for many years I have been involved in many local charities, as have other members of this fundraiser, but on this particular occasion it was decided to do something for those less fortunate in India.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know when the last person in Australia died from starvation, leprosy, cholera or something worse. It is my opinion that in this country there is some form of assistance, if the person really wants to be assisted.

“Not so in places like India where most are left to fend for themselves and some could be counted as lucky to be receiving a proper burial.

“I have a saying that I live by, ‘but by the grace of God go I’, and I am particularly aware of that with what has just happened in China and Burma, with the death count astronomical. I ask you: should we just turn our back on them as well, just because they have a bad government?

“As I said, you are entitled to your opinion, hopefully the money you were going to give to our charity you have channelled into something ‘onshore’, which is a good thing.”

The person’s argument certainly had merit. I just don’t agree with it.

Plenty probably will, particularly in these uncertain times on our own shores.

But no one will ever convince me that we are not the lucky country. Heaven help us if, for some reason, we end up with the types of disasters that our Asian neighbours are going through.