Kotoni Staggs steps up after local family’s tragedy
Jasper Bruce |
Kotoni Staggs says an NRL premiership ring is proof that good things come to kind people, and the Brisbane centre has been showing plenty of kindness to a heartbroken family in his neighbourhood.
Only days before Staggs and his fiancee Britt moved into their new home in 2023, tragedy had struck the family next door as father David Orange died suddenly and unexpectedly.
The fit-and-healthy local business owner was only 38, and left behind wife Kerry and seven-month old daughter, Eylea.
In the family’s darkest hour, their new next door neighbour became a shining light.
Staggs often buys the family groceries, drives them places and babysits young Eylea among other acts of kindness, never asking anything in return.
“When somebody needs help and I’m around, and obviously I bump into people like that, I’ll do it straight away,” Staggs told AAP after the Broncos’ 26-22 grand final win over Melbourne.
“I’ll go through struggles sometimes but someone else is always going through a bigger struggle than what I am. If I can be there for them and put a smile on their face, that’s what I’ll do.
“I’ll take my shirt off and give it to them. If I had my last hundred dollars, I’d do the same thing. I’m a giver.”
Kerry Orange did not know of Staggs’ football career, nor had she even watched an NRL game before meeting him.
Through his generosity, she has come to think of Staggs as a member of the family.
“In the early, fragile days of grief, when even getting through the day felt impossible, Kotoni quietly became a steady and loving presence,” Kerry Orange told AAP.
“Without being asked, he stepped into our lives like an uncle to Eylea, offering support in the gentlest, most selfless ways.
“He gave both of us something I thought we had lost forever: a sense of peace, moments of comfort and even glimpses of joy in the midst of heartbreak.
“I will be forever grateful for the love and support he’s given us.”
The 26-year-old Staggs credits his late grandmother Dawn for instilling his desire to give back to others.
Staggs did not meet his father until his early 20s and was estranged from his mother for parts of his childhood, so Dawn Staggs was his guardian growing up in the NSW town of Wellington.
He still wears her name on strapping tape on his wrist during games and has a photo of the two of them on his bedside table.
“Without my grandmother, I don’t think I’d be walking around here right now. I’d probably be on the streets with no money (or) I’d be locked up,” Staggs said.
“She was my everything and she made sure we had food, we had everything on the table. She did what she did and I turned out to be an all right kid.”
As Staggs does his best to carry on Dawn’s legacy through acts of kindness, good things have begun to happen.
He played centre in the Broncos’ first grand final win since 2006 on Sunday night and has since earned selection in Kevin Walters’ Kangaroos squad for the Ashes tour.
“I love giving back to people and I love helping out people,” he said.
“At the end of the day, when you do good things, good things come in return. This (grand final win) is what happens.”
AAP
