From Senza Fine to Pink Martini: Today is my anniversary

Feb 08, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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It was difficult to sleep in the day in the Brickdam lock-up. The noise was extremely disturbing. The police picked up a young boy of unsound mind and he yelled and shook the cell door for two consecutive days.
Both Mark Benschop and I were put in separate cells by the specific order of Mr. Josiah, Deputy Commander to Mr. George Vyphuis. Why Josiah did that I guess was to spite both of us.
But on the day we were put on remand in Brickdam, a large number of prisoners came in. So Benschop was moved to cell number one where I was.
Mark Benschop made sleep impossible too. As night fell on the Brickdam police station, Benschop, like an amorphous lizard with wings attached, would climb onto a metal rail in the cell and perch himself on the ceiling where a small window look unto the street.
Then there were the incessant shouts to those on the road and persons entering and leaving Brickdam station – “Jagdeo is a dictator!” “Henry Green is a PPP puppet!” “Vyphuis is a house slave!”  “The PPP Government is a dictatorship, we must chase them out!” And the chants, some old, some new, went on through the night.
On the second night of our incarceration, Benschop was at it again. He reminded me of me when I was a young radical fighting the Forbes Burnham Government. I wasn’t interested in emulating him by scaling the wall onto the ceiling. It was his time to take over from people like me and the great ones who fought in the Working People’s Alliance.
On the second night, I asked Benschop to descend back to the ground floor so we can have an analytical chat about politics. Like Spiderman, he came down with his web all intact.
I asked what his post-election plans were because whatever happened after the elections he and I cannot go on being the only two persons fighting fascism in Guyana if the PPP wins again. Benschop opened up and indicated that his family and relatives are extremely angry with him because they keep shouting at him, “Why is it only he that gets arrested. He said his girl friend in the US was in constant worry because she too asked the same question and she is feeling the stress.”
I turned to Benschop and intoned that if his girl friend of a few years is feeling the pressure think of what my wife has gone through for 32 years, especially seeing that I am on a hunger strike and we don’t know when we will be released.
In December 2010, I wasn’t married for thirty two years. I was close then, but today marks exactly 32 years. Today is my anniversary. Janet Kissoon has stood by me for 32 years in times of war, crisis, hopelessness, oppression and fading optimism but she never faded.
The war was when we were caught in the American invasion of Grenada in 1985. A good friend got killed one block from where we lived. Three American marines drowned less than a mile from our beach-house and two Cubans died of their wounds not far from our home.
I met Janet Kissoon in 1978 at the height of the WPA’s confrontation with the Forbes Burnham regime. I married her the next year on this date. We shared the same poetry, books, authors and music. But she was never into politics. She had no interest and never will. Our musical taste brought us closer – Johnny Mathis, Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen, Karen Carpenter.
I always remember one particular song we were both crazy about – the Italian love song “Senza Fine”. We still listen to it together after 32 years. Here are some of its lyrics
“It’s senza fine
Let it always be senza fine
There’s no end to our love
Our hopes, our dreams, our sighs
No end at all, no sad goodbyes
No fears, no tears, no love that dies
The sunlit days, the moonlit nights
The sea, the sand, the starry heights
Are yours and mine forever more.”
Mark Benschop, looked at me and asked; “What is she going to do if they keep us here after Christmas?” I said we have a 21 year old daughter; she will see her through the ordeal but she is accustomed to it. He then posed the same question I asked; “What are you going to do after the election, PPP victory or no victory?”
I didn’t know what my answer was. I still don’t but whatever happens, I will always return to Janet and she will be there. For Father’s Day last year, my daughter’s gift was a CD compilation and my favourite on the list is a fantastic song by the orchestra, Pink Martini.
Titled “Let’s Never Stop Falling in Love,” I will dedicate this song to my wife on our anniversary today. I leave you with some of the words.
“I wish a falling star can fall forever
And sparkle through the clouds and stormy weather
And in the darkness of the night
The star would shine a glimmering light
And hover above our love
When you are near
Everything’s clear
Earth is a beautiful Heaven
Always I hope we follow the star
And be floating above
I know a falling star can’t fall forever
But let’s never stop falling in love”

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