Your eyes become clearer, and you realise this is an angel who lives on earth – Ramona Stainer
WHEN you wake up in intensive care unit at the Alice Springs Hospital, you think for a moment you might be in heaven, because you see the vision of an angel
Northern Territory
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WHEN you wake up in intensive care unit at the Alice Springs Hospital, you think for a moment you might be in heaven, because you see the vision of an angel.
Your eyes become clearer, and you realise this is an angel who lives on earth – Ramona Stainer.
Many people have experienced the immense comfort and reassurance of seeing Ramona when they are in the midst of a moment of peril in their lives.
Ramona’s voice, kindness and laugh make you think, ‘Well, things might just be OK after all.’
Ramona Stainer is one of the Australian outback’s most loved treasures.
A woman with the biggest heart, who sure knows how to have fun! Ramona has dealt with more than her fair share of heartache and loss, but she always comes through it.
Tough and gusty.
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Ramona’s entry into life proves that love triumphs all.
A Polish man named Dadeusz Rutkowski was held captive in a German Prisoner of War camp near Mannheim towards the end of World War II.
After the Allies completed bombing raids of the area, German soldiers would take prisoners out to clean up and repair the damage.
An SS soldier named Helmut took Dadeusz Rutkowski and three other prisoners out to clear up at his Mother’s house.
Helmut’s younger sister Ruth and Dadeusz locked eyes and fell in love. They are Ramona’s mum and dad.
The war was soon over, and Ruth and Dadeusz were free to be together. They had son Jerry and then in 1947, our Ramona.
“I was two and a half when we came to Australia. But I remember the snow in Germany. I don’t know why,” she said.
“But I was traumatised by a time when Mum took me to go somewhere, but I didn’t want her to leave me. And I just remember the snow being there” Ramona told the NT News.
“We came to Sydney and stayed in the old Army Barracks at Cowra. It’s where all the immigrants came.
“At home, I used to speak German to Mum, Polish to Dad and then English at school.
“It was very multicultural. I went to a Catholic school, and there were Hungarians, Maltese, Italians. Mum was Lutheran. One day she said to me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’
“I said, ‘A nun!’ Mum took me out of that school and put me in to a public school after that!
“My younger brother Ted and I would come home after school, and there’d be a note on the table that said to kill a chook or kill some pigeons for dinner. We’d kill them, gut them, pluck them and cook them.”
Ramona was a Champion swimmer at school. At the age of just 10 she swam the width of the Warragamba Dam – that’s 350m, or seven laps of an Olympic Swimming Pool.
“We’d go to the dam for picnics,” she said.
“I’d swam half was across and I was getting tired, I looked up to see which way was closest, and it was the other side, so I kept going. Then I ran across the bridge to come back.”
Ramona was so good at swimming, that in Grade 4 she beat all the same age kids. Then they put her up against Grade 5 kids, she beat them. Then Grade 6, and she beat them too.
“We left New South Wales when I was 12,” she said.
“We travelled towards Darwin with my step-Dad, Jack. We hardly had any money. My step-Dad was a fitter and turner, and he got a job at the hospital. I worked there doing the washing and ironing at the store.
“Then we came to Alice, and when I was 13 or 14, we moved to go and look after Wycliff Well. Dad sold cucumber, watermelon, lemon and pumpkin to Tennant Creek,” she said.
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Ramona and her brother made friends with a local lad and one day went out looking for his camp.
“We got lost! We couldn’t find our way back,” she said.
“We left in the morning, and it was the afternoon and we were still walking, walking, walking. I was scared, we couldn’t find the road. I didn’t think it would ever stop! Then a bloke from the Works Department came along and took us home. Mum sent us straight to bed! She wasn’t happy.”
Not long later the whole family hit the road and came back to Alice.
“It was 1960. Alice was very small. You could walk out and leave your key in the front door,” she said.
Ramona started her storeyed career working the Alice Springs Hospital, and would soon fall in love.
“There was a Copper, Jim Berry. He must’ve had his eye on me,” she said.
“Every time I was walking with the pram with my younger brother Peter, Jim would drive past in the police car and wave. One day at the Stuart Arms he started talking to me.
“If he saw me walking, he’d ask, ‘Do you want a lift?’ I’d say, ‘No. I don’t want to be seen in a cop car.’
“He asked to take me out. I said that he’d have to ask Dad. My Dad didn’t like Coppers, so when he asked what Jim did, I said he worked for the Government.
“Then one day Dad said to me, ‘Why didn’t you tell me Jim Berry was a Policeman? He came to my work today to ask if he could take you out?’
“I said to Jim, ‘Why’d you do that!?’, He said, ‘I didn’t have my hat on, so it wasn’t official!’ Dad said yes, so then we started going out.”
In 1966, Ramona and Jim took over Three Ways Roadhouse. The following year they had their first daughter Karen.
Ramona and Jim had Three Ways for 13 years, until 1979. Ramona put her shoulder to wheel to raise money for charity and the community. In fact, they had the first Beer Ticket Machine in the Territory, and the proceeds went to the Guide Dogs.
Ramona and the family moved to the Gold Coast for a time, then came back just before Cyclone Tracy.
After the cyclone hit, Three Ways was inundated with people coming through. Many didn’t have money for petrol. Ramona gave petrol away for free, to help people who were in a desperate spot.
Ramona gave a bikie $20. A few months later he sent her a letter with $20, and a thank you card that said, ‘Your thoughtfulness will never be forgotten.’
Ramona moved back to Alice, and a horrific incident occurred, where she and her two daughters were victims of a car accident.
Daughter Michele, who was only 8, tragically passed away.
“I think of her every day. We used to call Michele ‘Cheeky’,” she said.
Karen, who was 11, spent four months in hospital, with a fractured femur, and was placed in traction.
Ramona was also badly injured and hospitalised.
Ramona is an incredibly strong woman who has had to endure a lot of loss.
Her first son Andrew passed away, as have stepchildren Coralea and Donna.
Ramona’s second husband Al Stainer is also watching over her in heaven.
“If you’ve lost people, talk about it to someone! Get it off your chest. The more you talk, the easier it gets. Don’t bottle it up. Never push people away,” she said.
Ramona also says the key is to have fun!
“You’ve got to act like you’re 19 or 20 again,” she said.
Ramona has her three wonderful daughters, Karen, Angelique and Ronda.
Grandchildren Roy, Elley, Alan, Jasan and Daniel. And now great-grandchild, Brooklyn.
“They are all very special to me. I believe in family- people who stick by you,” she said.
Al was there that day of the car accident. He was two cars behind Ramona. Maybe God sent him.
“Al and I got married in 1983 on ANZAC Hill. The reception was really good, we had all the oldies there, all the hospital staff and all the bikies- a real mixture,” she said.
Ramona and Al did a power of work for charity. They started the now iconic Toy Run. More than 100 kids every year would otherwise have gone without a present on Christmas morning.
Al was a towering figure in Northern Territory motorsport, with an immortal legacy.
“Al was the main one getting money for the Drags strip. He was at the Government for 10 years,” she said.
Ramona too played a crucial part!
“They were talking about just doing a 1/8th mile strip first, instead of a Quarter Mile. Then they’d add to it later. But I said, get the whole thing done, otherwise you’ll have a bump in the middle,” she said.
Ramona is a dynamic spirit.
“I nearly kicked the bucket 16 years ago. I had a bug in the lung. I was tubed and in ICU for two weeks. They said ‘If she comes through, she’ll never be able to work again,” she said.
“I proved them all wrong!”
Ramona not only came back to work, she still is at work, in her 74th year.
Ramona has always known the value of hard work. When she started at the Alice Springs Hospital as a Wards Maid looking after patients, she’d then go out to the Drive-In Cinema, when it first opened in 1965, and clean the toilets. Ramona would then head back to the Hospital and complete her shift, then go back to the Drive-In to work the evening session.
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Ramona now works as a Patient Care Assistant and has been “feeding the night shift staff for the past 20 years.”
“I try do something different for them – pies, dim sims, meatballs, samosas, I even did tacos where they could make them up themselves,” she said.
“I’ve got a really good boss. I told her, ‘I’m even going to come in when I’ve got a walking stick, Jeanette.’”
Ramona Stainer is one of God’s finest creations, an indomitable force, and the epitome of a great lady.
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