COMMENTARY | I visit Wellington most months on business and was well acquainted with ‘Blanket Man’. I was shocked the first time I saw him. He looked like a wild man with shaggy unkempt hair and was dressed only in boxer shorts. To make matters worse, he was lying on a blanket on a street corner in Wellington CBD, just a few inches from heavy traffic.
I got used to seeing him on my regular visits and wondered who he was and how he ended up on the streets. It was only on his death that my questions were answered. His name was Ben Hana and he was 54 when he passed away. Ben was of Maori descent and lived on the streets for 11 years. He apparently went off the rails after killing a friend while driving under the influence of alcohol.
News reports showed that locals have left flowers, notes and memorials at the spot that Ben favored in the CBD of Wellington. Many had offered support and housing to him in the past but he chose to remain on the streets. I had to laugh when I read that a judge had ordered Mr. Hana to wear underwear at all times as he had a penchant for nakedness. He always had boxer shorts on when I saw him, but nothing else — no shoes, no shirt, no jersey in winter. Instead he would wrap a dirty, old blanket around his shoulders.
Ben was a public nuisance at times and I was always worried a bus or car would run him over as he lay precariously close to the street edge. Now it seems that years of malnutrition and substance abuse have taken him instead.
I will miss his presence when I next visit Wellington. I plan on walking down Courtenay Place to the spot where I frequently saw him. I’ll pause there and acknowledge his memory. He was a tramp, defiant and difficult in many ways – but he was also a human being. He had inherent worth and value and although some people had no time for him, there are many who have mourned on hearing of his death.