Louise Plemming
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
He kind of said to me, hey, I've seen you on telly commentating. And he said, what are you doing here? And would you come and have a coffee with me after lunch? And I sat down with him and Brian opened up this little black bag of two 1970s Jimmy Connors, you know, tennis racket. And there were three balls in that racket bag. And he said, would you play tennis with me?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
And I said, of course I would. I said, no problem. He said, I've got no one to play with me. He said, I play against the wall every day. He said, I hit 200 balls against the wall. What have we played next week? Monday, 6am. He played like Ken Rosewill and Rod Laver. He was amazing. He was chipping and slicing and I had the best time.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
And I think I had more fun than he did, but I could see he just was so passionate about his tennis. We kept playing tennis for quite a few months and And then the journey just became kind of incredible. He became my very first Rally Forever certified tennis coach. And it just changed his life because he'd spent many years in mental homes, hospitals, jails. And now he felt really special.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
He felt like he was doing something he loved, but he could be something other than that homeless guy.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
Yeah, my family were conscious and worried and I had a lot of friends that were saying, well, hang on a minute, you know, through our friendship and our time together and he's definitely had his challenges and some days he came to the courts and he was angry and we always tried to talk it through and I think, you know, the most important thing is that they have someone that will listen.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
For someone like Brian that has had his challenges, his family really don't talk to him. There's no one there. Yeah, there's so much turmoil around them that they lose everyone.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
We got him into social housing. He was really going to many of our programs. We have about 11 or 12 programs now in Sydney. So he was able to go to different programs and really feel like he had a sense of purpose. He was being introduced to different people in the community.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
On a Monday he started playing tennis with some doctors and lawyers and these guys loved him because he was better than them. You know, then they'd have a tea or a coffee after and he just felt like he was Brian the tennis player and not Brian the homeless guy. And I just loved to see him smile and have fun and, and just absolutely loved Tannis and loved what he did. And he was cheeky as ever.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
Like, he's such a cheeky character. He's funny. Everybody loved him. But not to say he really has had his challenges. He's going through a little bit of a challenge at the moment. He got injured. And when people stop exercising and they just stay in their room, that's when the issues start coming back.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
So we really hope that we can get him back being active again and building that self-confidence again, because it's all about that social connection. It's all about getting out in the sunshine and experiencing, you know, exercising the endorphins, just the interactions, you know, and him saying, great shot. His encouragement just lifted him so much. And I just love to see that.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
So many people knew his journey and they loved the fact that he was on the court and he was their coach.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From rescue to romance
He kind of said to me, hey, I've seen you on telly, would you play tennis with me? He played like Ken Rosewill and Rod Laver, he was amazing.