He lives don’t worry, be Happy…

POLOKWANE – Known only as Happy, he makes visitors to the shopping centre on the corner of Biccard and Thabo Mbeki Streets leave with a smile as he plays a handmade flute that he found back in 1956.

With this flute he spreads joy to all those who crosses his path.

Happy just celebrated his 70th birthday and speaks about his children, of which the youngest is finishing school this year. He was never taught to read or write but his love for music has kept him busy and makes people happy. “I do not have much in life and where my wife and I stay we do not need much. Singing and playing the flute has been the one thing that set me apart from other people making a living on the street,” he says smilingly. The visitors to the shopping centre spare him a few coins for his only income. “If I do not make the R16 I need to go back home to in Turfloop, I spend my night at the top parking where I sleep in an upright position,” he says.

Happy never went to school to receive the education he would have liked and this is the only thing making him sad, he says. But he never lets people see him disappointed or sad because it makes others sad and he wants too prevent that. “I do not want to see people in pain and sad. Life is too short to cry or spend a moment regretting anything.”

His biggest wish is that all children will be able to go to school and learn to be the best they can be and never have to make a living on the street. “I beg the children to stay in school and not to become drunks and throw away their future.”

Happy says the money he makes is never enough to buy clothes and he depends on donations from passersby for clothing for him and his wife. “When you do not have enough you learn to appreciate the little you do have and to make things last. I teach my children to do the same. Life is not about wasting, it is about taking the little you have and treating it like the gold you will never have,” he sums up his motto.