Mario Girasole loves music and has been developing his songwriting skills. Photo: Paz Girasole.
At 26, Mario Girasole’s life took a turn for the worse when he was hit by a coward’s punch that nearly killed him.
The last thing Mario remembers of the incident was telling an acquaintance, who was living on the street, that he could not stay at his unit.
“He wanted to fight, so I turned to walk away and he punched the back of my head and I fell, hitting my head on the kerb,” he recalls.
An off-duty police officer saw the incident and chased the attacker, who was charged and sent to prison for two years.
That was 12 years ago and Mario’s father, Paz, from Figtree, who left work to look after Mario, takes up the story of Mario’s long journey to rebuild his life.
“The first I knew of the assault was a phone call the next day from a doctor at Wollongong Hospital to say Mario was in intensive care and to come immediately,” Paz recalled.
“Mario’s skull was cracked and his brain was bleeding and swollen on the left side.
“The doctors inserted a stent for the bleeding and told me there was nothing more they could do, and that it was a ‘wait-and-see’ situation, so all I could do was pray to God to let my son live.
“Eight days later, Mario amazed the doctors when he got up and walked out of intensive care.”
The injury, however, left Mario with mild brain damage, meaning life had changed for father and son.
Mario, who then lived in West Wollongong, moved in with his father, who became his carer and who did the hard yards in early rehabilitation.
Two years after the assault, Flagstaff Group, which provides employment for people with disability, employed Mario in its commercial laundry at Unanderra.
“I’ve been there for 10 years now and they recently gave me a long-service certificate,” he said proudly.
Like his dad, Mario has a love of music, particularly hip-hop, rock and heavy metal, and over the past few years he has been working on his songwriting abilities with his support coordinator and Flagstaff’s We Belong team.
“I’m what you call a freestyle songwriter, which means I write down what I feel to fit the mood of the song,” Mario said.
His goal was to write a song and perform it on stage, so Flagstaff organised a gig at Wests Illawarra at Unanderra earlier this year.
And he smashed it with a rousing rendition of his song We Belong.
At one point, he charmed the audience into singing “Go Mario, go” in the chorus, which was the icing on the cake for Mario.
One of those cheering him on was his father.
“I’ve played bass guitar in bands for many years, but I’ve never been a solo musician, so I felt very proud,” Paz said.
Mario said he surprised himself.
“I was calm performing, but after I got off the stage I started shaking and had to calm myself with a beer,” he said.
Mario’s hope is to one day have a crack at disc jockeying, and his father is already schooling him on engaging an audience.
Paz said it had been a hard road, but the future was now looking brighter.
“I’m grateful that God intervened when doctors told me they could do nothing, and hopefully the jail term has taught the offender a lesson he won’t forget.”
