Wow!! Ah prophet get honoured

OUT AH SHARE curiosity, ah went around asking a few folks in confee- dense what dey thought of Dr Cyrus’s Knighthood.

De comments were unanimous: “Great choice! De man deserves it! He should ah get dat long time ago!

I always thought he was Knighted years ago!” But Lie-Za had ah mouth full.

She said dey are two kind ah “hoods” namely ah Knighthood dat is given to candidates who gave Excellent Service to his/ her country or Region; and dey’s ah Night-hood, ah head covering dat some ah de others doh even deserve.

My first contact wid Sir Cecil was at ah Gas Station on Bay Street, dah’s donkey years ago, when dey were three Gas Stations on Bay Street and one opposite de Court House. One afternoon ah was hanging wid Mike, my cousin who was an attendant at one ah these Stations. Suddenly a big car, driven by ah slim looking youngster in his early twenties, pulled into de station. We never saw dis young-man before, mek matters worse de car like it was too big foh him.

He had ah shy look, still does; soft spoken wid ah Vincy/English accent and his hair had ah wicked part on de left side. He was very pleasant and quickly opened up to us.

Told us his name and dat he was studying to be a doctor in de United Kingdom (Ireland), dat he was on vacation. But what stumped us was after paying foh his fuel, he gave us ah tip and told us: “Buy yourselves an I-scream when de I-scream cart comes around.” We couldn’t figure out what was happening. Only de few white tourists dat visited back den gave tips, he was neither white nor tourist, in fact he was just ah humble Vincy, Gypsy’s “ lickle Black Boy” in de making.

About five years after, ah was at Grammar School when suddenly, classes were interrupted as everybody was summoned to meet in de Assembly Hall.

Ah Past Student name Cecil Cyrus had successfully completed his studies as ah Doctor in de UK, and had returned to pay us ah courtesy call. Immediately ah recognized de gentleman, he was de guy who tipped me at de Gas Stayshun, except he had put on ah lickle more weight, de big part in de hair was still dey, untouched; and he still had his shy look. Ah remember it was ah powerful, comprehensive and informative presentation foh which he got ah loud school-boys applause. And we got de usual ah half holiday from classes foh his success.

Am almost certain he immediately went back to de UK to do additional post grad work. But when he finally returned, Sir Cecil brought wid him ah radical change, like ah Rev-all-yuh-shun hit de Colonial Hospital now de Milton Cato Memorial Hospital. Not to discredit de long and faithful services of doctors like Gun Munro and Harry Munro and others, but Doc Cyrus’ FRCS made ah big difference at de time. Ah number of ole people who were literally waiting to get dey passport stamped to go met departed souls, Doc Cyrus put dem pon de operating table and had dem walking and living it up again. Word on de street and de region was dat SVG had den one ah de best Surgeon in de region.
In fact people from other islands came to have dey surgery done by Doc Cyrus right hey in SVG.

In de field of Sports, Doc Cyrus single-handedly introduced de game of Squash in SVG. Today our young Vincentians travel de world all over to compete in Squash. He built ah Squash facility dat is today de Nah-shun-all Squash Complex. What ah man!!

But like de story in de good ole book dat says: “ah prophet is not without honour except in his hometown, among his own relatives and among his own household,” Prophesy fell pon Doc Cyrus, he got his share, ah kick in his rear. De relationship went soo sour, dat at one time he was denied Vacation Leave, was blocked at de Airport when he tried to leave wid his family foh ah vacation. He had to slip out de country like ah teef, like David Aims of Buccama did. So give it to de ULP Administration foh seeing dat Doc Cyrus got de least any country could give ah worthy Nah-shun-All foh Excellent Service to his country and de region… ah Knighthood. And wid dat mouthful, is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

● Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.