GUARDIAN angels have a way of gently steering their assigned soul towards the greater good – just ask one of Queensland’s most successful business leaders, Richard Barker.
The former Queensland Rugby Union chief executive officer and leading radio executive has taken up a new challenge to transform the life of the blind and visually impaired as the general manager of Braille House.
As a Catholic from a large family of 11 (both his father and brother discerned the priesthood at one point in their life) Richard believes his new job was divinely inspired.
“I have a faith, and I believe that my guardian angel guided me here,” Richard, who attends Mass at St Luke’s Church, Buranda, said.
Braille House specialises in tactual literacy for all Australians, and now it’s Richard’s job to make it thrive ahead of its 125th anniversary next year.
But the role is so much more than a job for Richard; it’s a lifeline out of the darkest period of his life.
In 2018, Richard made headlines when he resigned from his position at QRU to support his wife, Tracey, as she underwent aggressive treatment for metastatic breast cancer, or breast cancer that has spread to another part of the body.
“It was a battle,” Richard said.
“You sort of sat there, sometimes in absolute awe of the strength that she had, but I knew (in 2018) that it was becoming a real challenge.”
The diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer was devastating news to Tracey, Richard and their five children.
Tracey had a decade earlier been diagnosed with stage three oestrogen-positive breast cancer.
She was 37 and in the prime of motherhood at the time.
“We had one in grade one, one in grade two, one in grade four, one in grade seven, and one in grade 11,” Richard said.
“The treatment regime she went through all those years ago was pretty intense.
“And then to go through that regime, and for all intents and purposes, put your body through such an amazingly tough time, you think you would come through the other side.
“But for some reason, a cancer cell misses all that initial treatment and lodges itself somewhere, and then decides it’s going to come out and be a pain in the arse to you.”
Tracey told the oncologist with absolute optimism that she would be the first person to beat metastatic breast cancer.
“Tracey never took the position that this is final,” Richard said.
“Tracey’s mantra was always get up, dress up, show up and don’t give up.”
Richard describes Tracey’s final moments as “confronting”; he stayed beside her, taking on some consulting work “which kept Tracey happy too” but in reality he “didn’t feel like doing much at all”.
Tracey sadly lost her battle to cancer in August of 2019 “after 22 years of battling, fighting, smashing it”.
“There are days where you just go, wow, how do you get up and keep going?” he said.
“You can get very angry and you can get very negative about a lot of things, but I’m trying to turn it into Tracey’s life which has meant a lot of good things for others.”
One of those good things is Richard’s return to full-time work.
Earlier this year, he received “a really encouraging email” from a friend working in recruitment that made him rethink his purpose in life.
He decided he would get back into the workforce, but this time, work for a small, non-corporatised charity, or a small, private, family-owned company.
“Then I saw an ad which was for Braille House and I applied for it,” he said.
“It sort of ticked a few boxes, and it really confirmed for me that I wanted to be working with good people doing good things for good outcomes.”
Founded in March 1897 by seven women, including Lady Lamington, the wife of former Queensland Governor Lord Lamington, Braille House initially started as the Queensland Braille Writing Association.
The seven women from the association transcribed books into braille for the blind and vision impaired, and soon offered to teach braille to the public.
Two years later they opened a free lending library; today, the library consists of 16,000 volumes of braille books, from cookbooks, magazines, maps and even bibles.
One of the braille bibles was donated to the Archdiocese of Brisbane earlier this year, and fits inside a mere seven boxes.
Every volume of braille books in the library is embossed onsite in a small printing room, and painstakingly proofed by volunteers at all stages of the transcribing process.
The association also produces braille for members of the public; most recently, it produced a Sacrament of Confirmation workbook for a Catholic family on the Sunshine Coast, and a tactile QR Code indicator that can be placed over any COVID-Safe sign-in poster.
At a recent meeting to discuss architectural plans for Braille House, Richard asked if anyone attending believed in the power of prayer.
“They were all looking at me a bit strangely,” Richard said.
“I said, well do we or not? Because I’ve been saying a lot lately.”
Richard explained that he thought prayer could help solve a particular issue he was having.
A man at the meeting sitting one of the lounge chairs responded quickly, saying “leave it with me”.
Richard now calls that chair “the prayer chair”.
“The prayer chair, the power of prayer, your prayers are answered,” he said.
Richard believes the future of braille is bright, and only going to grow in importance as Brisbane prepares for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032.
Some government funding could also help too.
“A lot of people think it’s over for braille, that new technology’s going to take over because it’s cumbersome, but it’s not,” Richard said.
“I’ve got an article on my desk downstairs saying ‘Braille is not dead’, about someone who’s blind, who reads braille books.
“Even some of my children said it’s a bit old…but my response to them was, are you going to stop teaching your children how to read and write, because there’s new technology for sighted people as there is new technology for blind people.”
As Richard moves deeper into his role at Braille House, he’s finding more comfort, solace and peace in a world without the love of his life beside him.
“And I think that’s probably Tracey saying, ‘This is good for you, this is what you need to do’.
“I think she would be very happy that I’m doing this.”
