Owner/Driver #339
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started to lose his sight, and lose it quickly.” He<br />
stops for a moment. “With so much going on, I<br />
probably wasn’t paying as much attention [to his<br />
father’s condition] as I should have.<br />
“That still troubles me a bit but you live and<br />
learn, aye.”<br />
The Dark Days<br />
It’s a warm, humid Thursday afternoon in mid-<br />
February. Phillip is sitting quietly in a corner of the<br />
shed, surrounded by the three stunningly restored<br />
White Mustangs and the two small dozers that<br />
define so much of his pride and passion for White<br />
trucks and Cat machinery.<br />
The video crew, which has been here most of<br />
the day to record the interview of a blind man’s<br />
dedication to the immaculate restoration of such<br />
classic trucks, has packed up and gone, and now he<br />
rests, his hands on the long white stick that helps<br />
guide him around obstacles.<br />
Sitting in one of the old trucks, I stupidly shut my<br />
eyes and try to imagine what it’s like to see nothing<br />
but a curtain of pitch black. Ridiculous! I can open<br />
my eyes and see. He can’t.<br />
The latest of the old Whites is a 1955 WC28 model,<br />
the biggest and arguably most intricately restored<br />
of all three, bought as little more than scrap metal<br />
from a wrecker’s yard in the NSW Hunter Valley.<br />
Like the petrol-powered 1961 WC22 model and<br />
the 4200 model from 1964, with its even bigger<br />
bore petrol engine, the WC28 with its Cummins<br />
NH220 diesel engine was fully restored by the<br />
skilled tradesmen of prominent south coast family<br />
company, Cleary Bros.<br />
The original Cleary brothers – Denis and his<br />
late siblings John and Brian –have been close<br />
friends for many decades and Phillip is quick to<br />
give credit to the company and its tradesmen for<br />
the unquestioning commitment to the remarkable<br />
rebirth of his trucks. In the next breath: “Other<br />
than my father, I learnt more from John Cleary<br />
than anyone. He was a very smart man and a great<br />
friend.” It’s high praise from a man who most times<br />
keeps his inner thoughts well contained.<br />
Even so, it’s one thing to know every detail of<br />
each truck’s specification, but how does a blind<br />
man maintain a passion for wonderfully restored<br />
machines and critically, be assured of the high<br />
standards of the workmanship? His answer is<br />
spontaneous and without the slightest hint of<br />
doubt.<br />
“I can picture it and I can feel it. I can picture<br />
what they are and what they need to be.<br />
“I’ve been around trucks all my life, and trucks<br />
like these were part of my life as a kid. People tell<br />
me how good they look but I can visualise it, too. I<br />
reckon if I could see, they’d look exactly how I see<br />
them in my mind.<br />
“Besides, I know the blokes at Cleary Bros will do a<br />
good job and they’ll do it just the way I ask. They’re<br />
good tradesmen but they’re good people, too.”<br />
Still, there’s no escaping the disappointment and<br />
the frustration. Here is a man, after all, who worked<br />
hard all his life, and loved most things about his<br />
working life, hardships and all. A man who drove<br />
and operated and understood trucks and heavy<br />
machinery as well as any, yet a man who continues<br />
to thrive in the company of like-minded, honest<br />
people, and once a friend, remains an unwaveringly<br />
true friend.<br />
In quiet conversation though, Phillip admits he’s<br />
fully aware that some people are unable to relate to<br />
him the way they did when he had his eyesight.<br />
“It’s a bit annoying really. I’ve known some of<br />
these people for a very long time,” he says sharply.<br />
“I’m still the same person, I still know the same<br />
things, but I think they just can’t handle talking to<br />
a blind man. It’s as if they don’t know what to say<br />
anymore. I might be blind but I’m not bloody deaf<br />
or stupid and if it worries them, they should try it<br />
from my side.”<br />
He seems relieved to get that off his chest.<br />
The blindness is caused by a condition called<br />
anterior ischemic optic neuropathy and for Phillip,<br />
its first effects were felt in 2009. Most times, as wife<br />
Jenny explains, sight in at least one eye can be saved<br />
but it is extremely rare that both eyes are affected<br />
to the point of complete blindness.<br />
Despite the best efforts of many specialists<br />
including top ophthalmic doctors in the US<br />
introduced through Terry Peabody’s connections,<br />
nothing could be done and by Christmas 2010,<br />
Phillip was completely blind. It was, of course, a<br />
brutal hit and coping mechanisms came in many<br />
forms, but none greater than the incredible stoicism<br />
of an intensely loyal wife and resolute family.<br />
ownerdriver.com.au<br />
APRIL 2021 67