A life of love
IF an eight-week bedside vigil of love, prayer, undivided attention and the best medical attention available could have saved anyone, Professor Barrington ‘Barry’ Chevannes would have been given many more years.
But when not even those who loved him most could will him to return to them, a fitting thanksgiving service at the chapel on the grounds of the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, in St Andrew was all that could be done.
Yesterday, the prolific writer, educator and respected social anthropologist, who passed away on November 5 at age 70 following hospitalisation and a brief battle with acute pancreatitis, was eulogised by many. But perhaps the most moving of testimonies came from the three women closest to his heart.
It wasn’t his academic achievements that were immortalised, though they were many and notable, but the collection of moments and days spent with a man who loved completely and gave of himself unselfishly in every sphere.
The brave trio smiled and chuckled at times, but gave in to tears at other moments.
Emotions ran deep in the atmosphere, which was quietly dignified like the man himself; the central figure, the burnished coffin draped with green and white blooms. His children loved by him in life, in death became his message.
His daughter Abena, in a riveting tribute mixed with lines of songs from her childhood and written by her ‘daddy’, recalled a man she said was “opposed to violence” had “difficulty accepting unkindness and cruelty”, and constantly would ask when he heard of some unspeakable act “why are people so cruel and selfish, how can people be so unkind?”
“We should regard love as Barry’s spirit,” she said.
Her sister Amba tried to explain the void left in her life by the man who fathered her.
“There are many things I miss about daddy, the discussions in the kitchen, his protection, his understanding, his laughter, his hugs, his kisses, his counsel, I miss our movie dates, I miss him. When daddy fell ill, my light dimmed, my entire world grew dim,” she said.
But even through his illness and subsequent passing, a lesson was passed on, she said.
“When I think of my father I think of his great capacity to love unconditionally. Like a flame it attracted many, but it never scorched, it never harmed, it nurtured and healed…,” she reminisced, adding “because I love my father, I will honour him.”
Family member Kinshasa Kirkwood Minott who “adopted” Chevannes and his wife as her parents, despite having her “own loving parents”, remembered a father figure who was “never angry or disapproving, a real-life person who loved as God loved… even when mistakes were made”.
“He was the most dignified man I know. The way he lived his life was a testimony to love, he was never judgemental,” she said of the “blessing” she called Uncle Barry.
Wife Pauletta in a tribute themed “I give thanks” described 42 years of “sheer happiness with a real man who did not have one face for the public and another for his private life”.
“A part of me has been taken away that can never be replaced. Barry and I shared a very special love. We were like peas in a pod, the yin and yang. We laughed together, wrote together, cried together, composed together, danced together, explored beautiful Jamaica together, raised two loving, caring and confident children together and simply lived and loved together,” she said, while recalling the almost everyday ritual of him preparing her breakfast, their unbroken lunch dates and his constant and varied statements of love.
Lifelong friend Professor Rupert Lewis drew chuckles and smiles with his reflections about hiking expeditions with Chevannes and memories of an unforgettable cycling escapade, the only venture he can recall his dogged friend quitting. To his recollection, “it was one of the few things Barry gave up”.
Friend Professor Peter Figueroa, who “hoped against hope” that Chevannes would live despite knowing how ill he was, hailed a man who “was driven by a belief that he was brought into the world to make people happy”. Chevannes, he said, was a philosopher and a ‘great Jamaican thinker’.
Each counterpart and colleague who paid tribute had some memory, which had the audience chuckling. But the sobering moments were many as every now and then the chapel reverberated with the unforgettable timbered voice of Chevannes, in times gone by uttering some verse or song penned by his own hands to the accompaniment of his guitar, which had some mourners surreptitiously dabbing at their eyes.
In his homily, Father Byron Chevannes — brother of the late professor — said his sibling lived a life that was not merely ‘lip service’ but one in which his true beliefs and values shone through.
Professor Nigel Harris, vice chancellor at the University of the West Indies, in his tribute said that the university had suffered irreparable loss with the death of Chevannes, who was unquestionably committed to the advancing of that institution. Chevannes, he said, performed with distinction voluntary acts of public service.
Also among those who remembered him yesterday were Barbara Gloudon — deputy chair of the Institute of Jamaica — who extolled the work and worth of Chevannes with that establishment, which lasted 13 years, and Horace Levy, a member of the Peace Management Initiative and Violence Prevention Alliance of which Chevannes was a part.
Also paying their last respects were Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller, former prime minister of Jamaica Edward Seaga, Foreign Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Kenneth Baugh, president of the Senate Dr Oswald Harding, Transport Minister Lester ‘Mike’ Henry, Opposition spokesman on finance Dr Omar Davies, Opposition member of parliament Dr Peter Phillips, former Opposition senator and former foreign affairs state minister Delano Franklyn, among other dignitaries and members of academia.
Horace Levy (left), a member of the Peace Management Initiative and Violence Prevention Alliance, and Professor Anthony Harriott (right) take the lead in bearing the coffin with the remains of Professor Barrington ‘Barry’ Chevannes from the Chapel on the grounds of the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, in St Andrew following the funeral service there yesterday. (Photos: Jermaine Barnaby)
Daughter of the late Professor Barrington ‘Barry’ Chevannes, Amba loses the battle to grief while watching the hearse bearing her father’s remains leave the grounds of the University Chapel at the UWI campus in Mona yesterday.
Journalist and talk show host Barbara Gloudon (right) and noted Jazz singer Myrna Hague share a sorrowful moment following the funeral service for Professor Barrington ‘Barry’ Chevannes. Gloudon is deputy chair of the Institute of Jamaica where Chevannes served as chairman of the council up to the time of his death.