Death came too early for my friend and colleague

Jun 05, 2016 Features / Columnists, My Column

I have heard repeated that life is full of uncertainties. I myself have had my share of uncertainties. Friday night when I spoke with Dale Andrews as he was filing a story, I would have been the last to believe that that was the last time I would be speaking with him.
I last saw him Thursday evening as he was leaving for home, and while he said that he was a bit under the weather, we had known that Dale was not always in the best of health. Imagine the shock early yesterday morning when I got the call. I am not always at a loss for words, but I was yesterday. Why should I expect that someone like Dale would simply die so suddenly?
Death has shocked me in the past. It was not so long ago, less than two years ago, that I got an early morning call that informed me that my son had died. As was the case with Dale, I saw him just a few hours earlier. Death must come, but when it does it is always unexpected, especially when the person was never bedridden.
In death, people always try to say the best things possible about a dearly departed. I do not even have to try to say good things about Dale. For starters, he was my friend. To add to that friendship was the fact that he was an alumnus, a man who followed me in Queen’s College.
The past fifteen years that we spent in the Kaieteur News editorial department were interesting. Sports on the television and Dale would be the expert on all of them. He was fanatic about cricket, so we clashed on many aspects. I remember when he almost got a heart attack cussing Darren Sammy for shifting the batting order and West Indies lost.
He was a boxing fanatic and perhaps there is some solace that he died the same day as his idol, Muhammad Ali. Was that part of God’s plan?
He was equally fanatic about reporting. Many a young reporter felt the whip because they failed to do what should be natural—follow up a story. Forget about coming late. Many tried to seek support from others in the administration by complaining, but they got nowhere. You simply did not test Dale.
In hindsight, one may be tempted to say that Dale was not as aggressive with his health as he should have been but I always say, one can only know the pinch of the shoe when one wears it. There was Dale in the office early every day, because he had to take his children to school in the city. Then he would leave late at night having put in a solid day at work.
Besides, exercising is not something people do readily. It can be a chore, but when you get older it is a chore that must be undertaken. So it was that when Dale began to gain weight he made a decision to eat right and to exercise. He was conscious of the fact that his father had died about the same age. The affliction appeared to have been passed down.
We went into the gym because Glenn Lall, with an uncanny sense of wisdom, installed one right at Kaieteur News. Dale headed for the treadmill and I did many other things. Then he stopped, at least so I thought until I learnt that he visited the gym in the mornings. Then he stopped again.
Having said that, I must take the bull by the horns and declare that the editorial department is so much poorer. He was one of the people who would take up the slack and put the newspapers to bed. We knew that once he was there no story that broke on East Coast Demerara would be missed. We routinely beat the opposition. He seemed to know all the buttons that had to be pushed in that part of the country.
There was the case of Roxanne Winfield. I insist that he was almost singlehandedly responsible for her getting the home in which she now lives. Like a terrier, he hounded the authorities until she moved in, and I was there when that happened.
I would get a call from Dale informing me that I should not worry about sending anyone to a location where there was a murder or a robbery. He would have got the news from the time of the incident and headed there. He knew the people at every police station, so we were never at a loss for information.
He must have known something that none of us did. Last Sunday he told the editorial staff that he wanted to finish the paper early, because he wanted to join some old workmates from the Guyana National Cooperative Bank, who had come home for the 50th anniversary of independence. He had gone to no event because the work had us busy. We simply missed everything.
The staff cooperated and Dale went to what turned out to be his last function that Sunday night. He was upbeat on Monday. That is why his death has hit me so hard.
Could he have lived a bit longer? I have since learnt that his wife kept suggesting to him that he visit the hospital since Wednesday. He kept putting off the visit. Dale was stubborn. Friday night when he was in major discomfort, again his wife suggested that they go to the hospital and again he postponed the visit. When they did take him it was too late.
Yesterday morning she kept crying to me, “Dale killed himself. Dale killed himself.” I am now left with the memories of a man who shared his rural life with me, often exchanging anecdotes. I will have the memories of a man with a great sense of humour, a man who would light up a room, and he did light up the editorial department.
I am left with the memories of a man at 47, who died too soon. He was as old as my son would have been today. I am going to see that empty chair for a long time to come, because I will allow no one to take that seat for a long time to come.

1 thoughts on “Death came too early for my friend and colleague”

dezetante June 5, 2016 at 12:46 pm

Live we may; Die we must. Dale is gone but his memories will always live on. My sincere and heartfelt condolences to you all