The demise of a great man

Sitting here at my desk, I was just finishing up a report for my boss and thinking to myself that I have one hell of a project ahead of me involving restructuring of my department and assigning new responsibilities to my team.

Barely expecting a call from my father at 10 a.m. on any day, especially today, I got the feeling something was wrong as he would normally wait until after 11 am to call since that is when his day begins. Having said our greetings, he then proceeded to tell me news that has made me brittle to the core about a wonderful man I got to know in New York City named Anwar Fancy. Uncle Anwar, a man of great health and sheer determination to rebuild his collapsed empire, was a man who gave a person such as myself the time of day during a very trying period when I was fresh out of college and desperate to find a suitable job in New York.

He passed away last night in New York. As it began to dawn on me the fact that he was no more, a collection of memories started rushing through my mind. We got to know each other quite well, mostly through telephone conversations and I began feeling an unbelievable and overwhelming weight of emotions I did not think existed. Simply because this man guided me and helped me by introducing me to his friends and acquaintances in the NYC area, he touched me in ways that have no come out after neglecting and taking for granted that a person like that would be an angel on earth sent by God to be a bright light when nothing was visible.

The manner with which this man became a source of inspiration and motivation for me, I sometimes think about why he would even bother. He was a busy man who was constantly reinventing his business. To give me the time of day he did, I am very grateful and hope he knows his effort did not go in vain.

I hope that his family is provided with the strength, ability and will to accept this tremendous loss. He truly was a gentleman and a soldier. Although many have tried, he was amongst the few that succeeded. May he be given a place of peace wherever he may be to look down upon and guide souls he once touched in this life.