And Still I Rise

Lately, my blog has been a bit glum but today I'll attend a funeral for a slain classmate. We sat together at the Kingstown Anglican School and like all children we dreamed big dreams that would take us to the top of the world. Never did we imagine that death would visit one of us at the tender age of thirty.

In 1991, we parted ways when I went to the Girls High School and he to St Martin's Secondary but still the friendship remained. It took a log in to Facebook to realise that Cuthbert May was the man shot in a bar whilst playing his favorite game of dominoes. I don't know why he was shot and I'm not going to speculate. The tragedy is a young vibrant man was brutally taken from us and increasingly there is scant respect for the sanctity of life.

As I write I am thinking of how our lives become interwoven with the persons we meet on our journey. While we were not best buddies in our adult lives the news of his death has made me nostalgic for a time when life was simpler. I remember Kingstown Anglican School when the most important thing was passing tests, playing games in the school yard and trying hard not to offend Mrs Ackie and Mr Kirby. I remember crying my eyes out because I had to kiss Olson on his birthday and how some the boys teased us mercilessly. Not Cutty though, he was always cool; to me at least. I remember how excited we all were when we passed Common Entrance but sad to be separated from each other. On another level it forces me to look at my own mortality when someone my age passes. It just doesn't feel right.

My heart goes out to his girlfriend a fellow Kingstown Anglican and GHS classmate, and the people who knew and loved him. I will have this abiding image of him with his glass of red wine and playing the game he loved dearly. Blessings Cutty, so sorry you had to go this way and I hope somewhere there is a safe game of dominoes waiting for you.