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The sugar apples I will never get to give Dale Andrews
Last Wednesday, Dale Andrews didn’t come to work. I asked the deputy editor, Nigel McKenzie what had
Goodbye Dale. I will never forget you!
happened to him and immediately said to Nigel that we should start worrying about Dale. Yesterday morning at 7 a.m., Mark Benschop rang to tell me that Dale had just died. Four years ago, Dale complained of chest pain. I took him to the Caribbean Heart Institute where Dr. Pratik Soni pronounced that he had an enlarged heart and it would cost ten million Guyana dollars for an operation.
I thought that the Ministry should foot the bill, so I went to see medical superintendent of the Georgetown Hospital, Dr. Sheik Amir. I was Freddie Kissoon, the government critic, so I don’t know if that played a part in Amir’s refusal to see me. I wrote that Amir should not hold that position he held and Amir threatened the newspaper with libel if I did not apologize. Adam Harris said I needed to use the words, “in my opinion.”
I took Dale to Dr. Doobay of the Georgetown Hospital who dismissed Dr. Soni’s operation procedure as nonsense and has been treating Dale since then. Since those four years, Dale acquired an excessive amount of weight and each day it worried me. I would constantly tell him that he needed to do corrective things to get rid of the weight. For the past year, Dale has been on a strict diet. He had what needed to be digested for people who needed to reduce. It was cruel that he has been on that regime for more than a year now then death came.
In life we will never know what lies ahead. On Thursday afternoon, he was joking with me and I told him on Saturday (because he doesn’t work on Friday) I am bringing sugar apples for him. He loves sugar apples. I have three trees in my yard. The birds do not give the fruits a rest, so I covered five of them with black plastic bags; two for Adam and three for Dale. I will never get to give Dale those fruits. He is gone from us at the Kaieteur News
The ‘Crime Chief’ in the Kaieteur News archives
and from my friendship forever.
I met Dale Andrews sixteen years ago when he started out at Kaieteur News. I immediately saw the talent. In 2005, there was a little quarrel with him and the then editor Gwen Evelyn, and that led to Dale departing Kaieteur News. Glenn Lall was out of the country and came back the next day. I remember the day vividly when I argued for Dale’s return. Glenn was on the land that I had just bought to build a home in Turkeyen, suggesting to me that he would ask his wife to design my home.
I told him that there must be Dale Andrews at the Kaieteur News because the newspaper would lose a very talented journalist. Glenn agreed for Dale’s return, and since then Dale Andrews has carved his name in the annals of journalism. I regarded Dale Andrews as a crime investigating journalist on par with any in this world, and I mean that to the bottom of my heart. I don’t care how powerful and prestigious the Guardian of London and the New York Times are, if you had put Dale at those newspapers he would have excelled.
Dale Andrews was just naturally born for crime reporting. I cannot say I am familiar with his counterparts in the forties, fifties and sixties but I would say boldly, he is one of the best the Caribbean produced, and the best Guyana birthed. We shared sixteen years of a good friendship and there were hilarious moments, some were seriously thoughtful. One example from the hilarious and one from the serious should suffice
He ran out of his medication for his heart one Friday afternoon and this female medical doctor at the Georgetown Hospital was rude, saying the clinic is closed. I implored that she
Dale attending a security workshop in Barbados.
write a prescription because she knows Dale’s condition, for she was the one that initially admitted him to the Georgetown Hospital. She refused again and I was livid. My decibels were plenty and my voice condemnatory. All I know was Dale pulling me back from confronting the lady, with the words, “Freddie, you can jeopardize me.” The next day I wrote a column asking for her to be fired.
The hilarious incident occurred last month at the wedding of a staff member, Maya. As we were leaving, Dale asked Maya’s mother for a “take-away” for Adam. I said to him, “But Adam doesn’t work on Sunday night.” He said to me, “Freddie, I thought you had sense.” Then I knew what he was doing. Goodbye Dale. I will never forget you!
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Sincere condolences to you and the entire staff of Kaieteur News
RIP Dale….knew you for over 35 years! thats quite a bit