By Donal Sheil, ABC.Net
Tony Meli may be blind and deaf, but in his personal workshop, he is capable of things that defy belief.
The 54-year-old from Jerrabomberra in southern New South Wales communicates using a special form of Auslan where he holds peoples’ hands while they sign to him.
This enhanced sense of touch is part of what gives Tony his remarkable talent with tools.
After transforming his backyard with landscape structures, brickwork and decking, the carpenter has now turned his hands to making ornate chair benches and fruit bowls.
“When I’m working in the workshop, I feel that I do have more power, I have control,” he said.
“I love it, it just makes me happy.”
While navigating his garden might sometimes prove difficult, he laughs off the challenge as a reality of his everyday life.
“I put stuff in the wheelbarrow, and often I’ll find I’ve taken a path less travelled and I’ve ended up somewhere where I really don’t want to be,” he said.
“So you’ve got to laugh.”
“When I’m working in the workshop, I feel that I do have more power, I have control,” he said.
“I love it, it just makes me happy.”
While navigating his garden might sometimes prove difficult, he laughs off the challenge as a reality of his everyday life.
“I put stuff in the wheelbarrow, and often I’ll find I’ve taken a path less travelled and I’ve ended up somewhere where I really don’t want to be,” he said.
“So you’ve got to laugh.”
Tony was born profoundly deaf and worked as a certified carpenter in Canberra for more than a decade before his vision started deteriorating.
The loss of his vision at the age of 32 forced him to retire early, and caused him a lot of anguish.
“Over time I did notice that my work was changing, and I began to get really seriously concerned and upset, very sad,” he said.
“I didn’t want to just be sitting down in a chair doing nothing, I didn’t want to do that.
“It was really that I wanted to work, I wanted to go to work.”
Tony said none of the procedures he did now had changed much since he lost his vision, but that he instead took extra care to ensure his safety.
He said his faith also provided a daily source of strength and guidance in his work and life more broadly.
“Every day I do pray, and I do ask that Jesus looks after me, and he watches over me,” he said.
“And I thank him at the end of the day. I’m tired, and at night I do thank him for looking after me.”
Tony said being a deafblind carpenter meant he had to have a lot of inner strength, like the pieces he builds.
“I really do have to be strong, strong like a table,” he said.
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