Wilma Bronkey mentioned in MSNBC article

[Guest guest]

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Moderator's Note

Dr. Wilma Bronkey is a long time devotee of Sri Sathya Sai Baba who, with her

husband Dr. Bronkey, opened her home, "Enchanted Acres", in Northern Oregon to

people with disabilities. She worked with handicapped children for 30 years.

There is a video entitled "Wilma Bronkey's Story" distributed by 'The Video

Education Company' about the incredible experiences of Wilma with Swami. Some of

her experiences are described in Howard Murphet's book "Walking the Path with

Sai Baba".

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Spirit guides Ron home

 

By LORI BASHEDA

The Orange County Register

 

USA - He wears a sheriff's badge to ward off the bad guys. He thinks cows come

from Holland and speak Dutch. And his voice is a high-pitched squeak of a

whisper that few people take the time to understand.

 

Ron Langloe might be a musical savant, but he also is an autistic man with

social skills that are innocently childlike. So, when he began pining for the

Alaskan town where he was born 52 years ago, his friends and band mates

basically had to get the hint.

 

"I wonder how much a T-shirt costs in Ketchikan," Langloe would ponder aloud. "I

wonder if they have a merry-go-round in Ketchikan."

 

In two weeks, he will have to wonder no more.

 

Ron is going home.

 

Even if it was the briefest of homes. And perhaps not the most kind. Ron, who

was born with brain injuries and facial deformities, was abandoned in Ketchikan

as a newborn and immediately sent to a hospital in Portland, Ore.AUDIO

 

Listen to a clip of Ron Langloe's music:

 

1. Playing the guitar in "Wipe Out."

 

2. Playing the accordian in "Christmas Polka."

 

3. Playing the piano in "Holly Jolly Christmas."

 

He spent the first nine years of his life an orphan, living at a hospital where

he underwent dozens of surgeries on his face, the left half of which was not

developed at birth.

 

"He's kind of my mirror in some ways," says Stephanie Serna, a music director

for Hi Hopes, an Anaheim-based band of autistic musical savants that Langloe

plays in.

 

Radical surgery rendered the right side of Serna's face disfigured at the age of

20. Doctors removed her eye and part of her nose and jaw to get to a tumor

growing in her sinus and save her life.

 

She believes it is more than a coincidence that she wound up being Langloe's

teacher. In many ways, she says, Langloe has become the teacher and she the

student. "Ronnie's my inspiration," she said. "He's out there in the world. He's

compensated with a really strong spirit for life. If he wants something, he just

goes for it."

 

Take Ketchikan.

 

"Send Ron Home," the sign says in Magic Marker. Serna made it for him. He props

it up next to him at the Anaheim Farmers Market on a recent Thursday morning.

 

Langloe, sitting on a cafe chair, squeezes song after song out of his accordion,

all from memory. He can't read music, but if he hears a song, he can play it by

ear - in the exact same key, not a chord out of place - on any one of 16

instruments.

 

Mariachi music bleeds into carousel songs. Today, only five people toss crumpled

dollar bills into Langloe's accordion case. But his crooked smile remains as he

quietly packs up to head to the city recycling center, where he will get $20 for

the bottles and cans he's collected this week.

 

Serna has been following Langloe around with a video camera on and off for seven

years and never once has seen his spirit waiver. Besides being her music

student, Langloe has become the subject of her thesis for her master's degree at

California Institute of the Arts film school. It's a documentary that invokes

author Joseph Campbell, who is celebrated for his books on mythology.

 

In his writings, Campbell ponders the power of creating your own personal myth.

 

Langloe, Serna believes, is a living example. "You really do create your own

reality," she said.

 

Where some might see a simple man who doesn't know any better than to believe

that the sheriff's badge pinned to his shirt will scare off the bad guys, who

tells people his parents were killed in a plane crash, Serna sees a man who

cleverly does what it takes to play the incredibly tough hand that was dealt

him.

 

"Ron's created certain metaphors and myths to make his life successful," said

Serna, who holds a degree in psychology. "Some people say he has outrageous

stories. But his stories don't hurt anybody. And they help him."

 

So, instead of looking at the five crumpled dollars, hanging his head and

muttering "forget it," Langloe wonders if they have a merry-go-round in

Ketchikan and heads off for the recycling center.

 

None of this is new to him. When he found out the largest street organ in the

world was in Amsterdam, he started collecting cans - and a year later he was

standing there playing that organ. When he heard about the carousels at Disney

World, it wasn't long before he was in Florida riding them.

 

This isn't the first time Langloe has gotten Ketchikan stuck in his head. But

his foster mother Wilma Bronkey, who he still calls "Mommy," had always

discouraged it.

 

Langloe arrived at Wilma and Ivan Bronkey's Oregon home when he was 9, becoming

one of 262 children they fostered over the years. His voice box was so damaged

that he communicated during his childhood by squeaking.

 

Shortly after his arrival, he pounced on the family piano and began to play.

Yet, it wasn't until he was in his 20s that he found an audience. He heard Hi

Hopes on the radio.

 

Langloe, with the help of his foster mother, hounded the band founder by phone

for months until she drove up to the Bronkey house in Grants Pass to hear him

play. He moved to Anaheim and has been in the band ever since, playing every gig

from the White House to the Grand Ole Opry to the Aladdin Casino and "Good

Morning, America."

 

Bronkey, now 85, recently told Serna that she still fears that finding Langloe's

family could open a can of slugs for her boy.

 

Serna is traveling with Langloe. She assures his foster mother that they will

not go a-hunting. The purpose of the trip is to reunite him with his birthplace,

not his birth parents. But then the population in Ketchikan is less than 14,000.

There is that chance that someone will remember something.

 

The only details Langloe knows is that his father is Russian, his mother part

Aleut.

 

Lately, Langloe has been warming up at band jam sessions with an Indian drum

beat or taking off with the old surf song "Apache" and the '60s pop song

"Please, Mr. Custer."

 

His weeklong journey home begins Sept. 19. Langloe wants to be at his birthplace

for his 52nd birthday Sept. 22.

 

Just last week, the Supreme Vizier of the Order of Alhambra donated a plane

ticket to Langloe. But he still needs money to pay for his hotel room. And the

merry-go-round, if there is one. And, of course, a T-shirt - whatever it costs.

 

-------------

 

Ron Langloe and the rest of the Hi Hopes band are holding a concert to promote

the release of their new CD at the Sisters of St. Joseph auditorium in Orange at

7 p.m. Sept. 18, the night before Langloe leaves for Alaska. To help him go

home, call Hope University at (714) 778-4440.

 

©2003 MSNBC.com

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5876193/