Elvis, God and Myles

Myles tells me that “God works in mysterious ways”. We get talking outside Addi Road Food Pantry in Marrickville. She doesn’t have much money so she likes to shop here. Because she helps feed a few other people she picks up a hamper and the free bread, fruit and vegetables as well.

Her car is pretty noticeable. Festooned with art and advertisements for assorted Elvis Presley films and tribute shows. Outside and inside as well. She’s a devoted fan.

Ask Myles for her favourite Elvis song and she gets adamant: “All of them!” Then she slices her hand across the air and gets secretive and admits a fondness for ‘Kiss Me Quick’. Oh, she says, shaking her head like it’s just too good.

Turns out the car was a gift from a friend who is a nurse. Her own car got messed up in a minor accident but she had nothing to replace it. This one is a Ford Festiva, with one ding on the back door where someone scraped by her. It was a bit annoying.

Myles wanted to make the car look nice. She explains how Nepalese auto people from Rockdale were persuaded to help her out. It’s a little complicated but that’s how Elvis came to cover her car.

God is always playing a hand in Myles’ good life. She helps people and they help her. The nurse friend who gave her the car for free when she needed it. The Nepalese auto painters who share her taste in music and art. And not so long ago, a friend who gave her a cassette of Elvis, unheard covers of songs like ‘Candle in the Wind’.

“He’s still alive you know, still performing,” Myles says. Pretending to be an impersonator but it’s the real him she assures me. “He looks a bit old but you can see when you are close. His name now is Sean.”

Myles is a bit of a candle in the wind herself. Five foot nothing in height, she’s Filipino, although she was raised here she states firmly. Her conversation rattles and jumps, skews and moves, but it’s all love of people, God and Elvis. And sharing the good vibes.

She loads the bags she got from the Addi Road Food Pantry into the tiny boot of her car. A few deliveries to friends tomorrow and a priest she knows who is not feeling well.

Myles doubles back then to Addi Road’s Wednesday Night Lights where free hot meals are being provided and a host of wraparound services are lined up from vehicles offering free medical help, laundry, legal advice, you name it.

There must be nearly 100 people here sitting at tables, eating and chatting or lining up to take advantage of the food and the help.

Myles is full of beans herself, admiring the way other women are dressed and telling them so, assisting some older people by fetching them table napkins, ping ponging around sociably till she gets a meal of her own and takes a chair to sit down too.

The DJ is playing Bob Marley and Rita Marley. Reggae and pop with sweet wings. Then a bit of toasting over the vinyl to declare how wonderful this place is.

Myles enjoys the reggae music and her meal. All the lovely people. She stays as long as she can before the drive back home. She does not like her picture being taken but is very happy to present her car before she leaves. It’s been nice, it’s always nice, but Elvis is still her King.

~ M