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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Remarks by The Prime Minister
The Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie
At Funeral Service
For The Late
Paul A.C. Knowles
Christ Chruch Cathedral
July 4th 2014
I’ve been in Antigua for the past several days, attending the annual CARICOM Heads of Government meeting but there was never any question that I would have to cut my trip short so that I would be back here in time for this home-going service for Paul Knowles, my homeboy from the Valley, my dear friend of so many years, my colleague in so many common endeavours over the years, including politics, the practice of law, and Junkanoo; a man who left his mark in so many positive ways on so many lives, and upon the art and culture of our beloved Bahamas.
It’s a bittersweet moment for all of us, isn’t it? On the one hand, we’re all thankful to God for sparing Paul any further suffering from the illness that he endured for so many years. Knowing that Paul is finally at peace in the arms of his Redeemer after having borne so much for so long is a thought that cannot but give us comfort and a sense of relief.
At the same time, there is no getting around the fact that we are haunted by the realization that Paul has left us far too soon; that there was so much more that this uniquely gifted man could still have given if only it had been his destiny to enjoy a longer time on earth .
But however that may have been - and sadly it was not to be - Paul nonetheless served out his allotted time, and he served it well.
In saying that, I hasten to admonish you - no less than I admonish myself – to remember that our time is coming too, that our days are numbered too.
We each have an assigned number of years. We never know the exact number assigned to us but what we do know is that in the great, big, book of life there is a number set hard against our names; and that no matter what we do or say; that no matter how we may struggle or squirm, nothing can change the number the Good Lord has allotted us. We can’t prolong it and we can’t shorten it. When our number is called, that’s it. It’s all over for us on earth.
And so let us be mindful today that while Paul has gone before us, we’ll catch him up with him one day, for our time is coming too.
This is, to be sure, a bittersweet moment. But when we balance the bitter against the sweet, the regret over Paul’s comparatively early passing, on the one hand, with the joy over his deliverance from further suffering, on the other, I think we end up coming down on the happier side of the equation where the sweet trumps the bitter.
Certainly, the story of Paul’s own life reveals a complete absence of bitterness and regret. He may have accepted the reality of his medical condition but he was never embittered by it. Instead he continued to embrace life, to celebrate life, and he continued to the end of his days to give the very best of his life to the service of others.
Indeed I think we were affected a lot more by what Paul had to go through than Paul himself ever was. We had known Paul to be a dancing, jumping, somersaulting dynamo – energy personified - in his younger days. He was a man of such dazzling vitality. And because he was, many of us simply couldn’t wrap our heads around the reality of what had become of him physically.
And to be perfectly frank there were some of us who thought it not only tragic but monstrously unfair that a man who was so full of life could be made to endure a progressively debilitating illness of the kind that Paul had to endure for the last two decades of his life.
But when all was said and done, didn’t the way Paul bore his illness tell us more about the greatness of the man than anything else he could ever have done in life? He bore it with such grace and dignity, with such bravery and fortitude, with such perseverance and strength that he became an inspiration for all of us.
Above all, it was Paul’s wonderful ability to continue to make his life meaningful to himself, to others and to the national community that ended up having the greatest effect upon us. He was truly a marvel in this regard. Rather than curling up in a corner, Paul continued to embrace life and to validate his life by continuing to be a loving husband, a devoted father and grandfather, a committed brother and friend, an energetic Christian witness, a passionately engaged Junkanoo leader and entrepreneur, an industrious and resourceful lawyer, and a loyal and patriotic Bahamian who was unfailingly generous with his time and his talents, especially for the physically challenged among us.
I knew Paul his entire life. Our lives were intertwined in so many ways, going back to our days in the Valley, through our years together in Junkanoo; and in my early years in politics when he and Ronnie were such an important part of the political movement in Centreville; and later when, following his call to the bar, Paul practiced law in the chambers I had formed with Hubert Ingraham. I brought Paul into the firm and Hubert brought in Brave Davis.
Paul would later go on to practice law in Darrell Rolle’s law firm, along with the late Jack Duffus of Jamaica, before launching out and forming his own firm, a firm in which he would actively practice until the end of his life.
And Paul was a good lawyer today. He appeared in some important cases, including a case that seemed to go on for years in the Supreme Court in which he appeared as junior to the Rt. Hon P.J. Patterson Q.C. on behalf of the Bahamas Hotel, Catering & Allied Workers Union.
Paul was not only a good lawyer. He was a good friend. All of those who ever counted Paul as a friend knew that in him they had a friend for whom no sacrifice was ever too great. He was a person of complete sincerity, genuine warmth and boundless compassion.
Inevitably, however, as we remember Paul today, it was his love for Junkanoo, it was his artistic creativity and technical virtuosity with Junkanoo, it was his grasp of the entrepreneurial and commercial possibilities of Junkanoo, it was his organizational and leadership skills for Junkanoo, and it was his many years on Bay Street as a star performer par excellence in Junkanoo - it’s all these things, with their common connecting cord to our nation’s premier cultural and art form, that we weave together into a mosaic of what Paul will be most remembered for.
Indeed there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that when the definitive history of Junkanoo is written, the name Paul Anthony Conrad Knowles will be writ large on the banner of the Greats.
He was an innovative force whose creative genius had few, if any, equals. He was a trailblazer, a pioneer in so many of the things about Junkanoo that we take for granted nowadays. Indeed it could well be said of Paul that he was the one who fundamentally changed the technology of Junkanoo, and the scale of Junkanoo, and the art and dance forms of Junkanoo.
Paul was not alone in doing this, of course, but when you look back and ponder the evolution of Junkanoo, especially in the critically transformative period of the 70’s and 80’s, you will gain an appreciation of just how revolutionary Paul really was in leading Junkanoo to a whole new level of cultural and artistic regeneration and renewal.
For the sheer volume and diversity of his innovations, Paul was in a class by himself.
I would not want to end my remarks this morning without paying public tribute to Paul’s family, his beloved mother, his deeply devoted son, Obi, and brother, Ronnie, and sisters, Joan and Sonia. You were all such stalwarts of love and support for Paul all through the years, all through his ups and downs, his hi’s and his lows.
But it is to Yvette that I want to pay special tribute this morning. You have been an absolute marvel of a wife and companion to Paul all these many years.
It has become an overused expression these day but you were truly the winds beneath Paul’s wings, especially in his darker, distressed hours when he needed to be lifted up and helped along the way.
You have been a model wife. Your love for your husband, your patience and understanding, your unstinting sacrifices and selflessness, your care and devotion have been nothing short of awe-inspiring.
The best decision Paul ever made in life was to accept the Lord as his personal saviour. The next best decision he ever made was to take you, Yvette, to be his wife and partner. It was that combination that in the end gave Paul’s life its deepest and most important meaning of all.
I extend my deepest condolences to Yvette, to Obi, to Paul’s mother, to Ronnie and Joan and Sonia and to their respective families and to all those - myself among them - who loved and admired this diamond of a man, Paul Anthony Conrad Knowles.
May he rest in peace.
___
© Copyright 2014 by thebahamasweekly.com
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