January 15, 2012
Ben Hana, aka Tarzan, aka “Blanket Man” dies
As reported in the NZ Herald and Stuff.
I remember seeing him asleep on the corner of Courtenay Place and Tory Street, bathed in sunshine, loin-cloth akimbo, home-made aluminium-can dope-pipe resting peacefully by his slumbering body, only a couple of weeks back. It seems weird that we won’t see him there again.
R.I.P.
(Remember, you can always do your bit to help Wellington’s homeless and needy, with a donation to the Downtown Community Ministry).
That seems, err, romantic? Do you also remember seeing his mental and physical state steadily deteriorate over the past few years?
As far as I could tell from my occasional passing by, his mental and physical state never really seemed to be in the best of shape.
I noticed a significant difference from leaving Wellington in 2007 and returning in early 2010. He seemed a lot less blazed on his blanket in the sunshine to a seriously sick individual. Still had his cock out all the same, mind.
In 2008 and 2009, he used to give me the friendly eyebrows when I passed by. After his time in a psychiatric hospital in 2010, he never seemed the same. It was like he just wasn’t as aware of his surroundings and seemed a lot more out of it than before. I never got the eyebrows again.
I took a pic of him eating sushi only a couple of months back:
http://kumararepublic.blogspot.com/2012/01/rip-blanket-man.html