79-year-old George Krams is the sign of a life worth living

Key points:

• ‘This is Your Life’ is a presentation series hosted by Alino Living’s Rumbalara House aged care facility on the Central Coast

• At 79 years of age, George had the chance to share his life story — a tale worth retelling for Talking Aged Care

• Mr Krams was born with with cerebral palsy, deafness and blindness

George Krams — born May 4, 1944 at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Paddington — was presumed dead in the womb at seven months in utero. However, George’s mother held out hope that he would make it into this world — 79 years later, he’s travelled and left his mark on it.

George’s religious parents saved up enough money to take him to Lourdes, a religious site in France, hoping for a miracle cure for his vision impairment — alas, no miracle occurred. Yet again, George’s mother persevered and family members brought back containers of the sacred Lourdes water for her son to drink.

The doctors declared that George could see, six months after he had consumed the water and in a seemingly miraculous turn of events. When the doctors asked George’s mother what she had done, she never revealed what she believed to be the cure — leaving the doctors completely stumped.

Reg South and George Krams were lifelong friends who met in the mid-to-late-1940s when they were both very young. They lived on the same street in Randwick and quickly became friends.

“He was sitting in his front garden, on the grass, with callipers on his legs. I didn’t know what callipers were, so I said ‘hello’ to him and his aunty Annie explained them to me in the best way she could, in a way that a child could understand,” Reg said, recalling his first meeting with George.

George was in his 20s when he decided to follow his childhood dream of becoming a priest, inspired by his parents’ convictions. However, he was rebuffed from carrying out his vocational vision and faced rejection when entering the priesthood. Undeterred, Mr Krams pursued his future for faith as a volunteer with the Catholic Deaf Association as treasurer for 12 years and as Vice President for two years.

“We kids [sic] had little or no problem communicating with George, as we all spoke ‘kid language’ and that was all we needed,” Reg explained.

Reg and his wife asked George to be the godfather of their second daughter — Deanne — decades later, in 1973. He relayed that they knew George was a good Christian with a strong religious upbringing.

Deanne, along with her two sisters, Cassandra and Trisha, all learned sign language at TAFE so they could better communicate with George. George remained close to the family and Deanne asked George to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day on February 3, 1994.

George set a Guinness World Record in 1982 for maintaining sign language at or above 45 words per minute for 35 hours and five minutes — to date, the record is yet to be broken.

After completing his education endeavours at school, he entered the public sector at the police department — a role he would diligently fulfil for 23 years before eventually retiring.

Reg told George that he had always been enormously proud to have him as a friend, as a tribute to their decades-long friendship of 74 years.

“You have had many challenges over the years and you have shown strength in overcoming a lot of these issues. You have shown us all you have the stuff that great men are made of,” Reg acknowledged.

“You are a leader in your own right. You are special to all who know you!”