CSB 1980-2007

Be happy, young man, while you are young,
and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you to judgment.

Ecclesiastes 11:9 (NIV)

A year ago today I was driving home from work and found that one of the roads I normally use near Cannon Hill Park had been closed by the police as a result of a road traffic accident. In the past week I found out that the person who had died was an old school friend of mine.

When I knew him, CSB was a down-to-earth guy. An optimist, he believed Roy Evans was the man to bring back the glory days to his beloved Liverpool. He knew about value-for-money, once reading my mind when discussing how remakes of classic cars such as the Mini and the Beetle were expensive, and baulking at the cost of a Ferrari cap when I told him it cost £20. As we neared the end of our school days together, he had just started taking part in a Bhangra dance act, telling me how much he had moved on from a wedding he had gone to where he had only known one move.

In Year 8, there was a plank of wood that crossed our rather disgusting school pond. While he was on it, I went on as well and playfully tried to push him in. Of course, i was the one who ended up amongst the mud and the coke cans. If he were around, I would probably comment how ironic it was I outlived him after falling into that mess.

In A House for Mr Biswas, we are told how the main character strives from his humble beginnings to build a life for his family, culminating in him buying his house which he cannot believes he owns. At the end of his book, the character dies, and you are left with a sense that life is futile; after all our strivings, we can take nothing with us.

This post is a tribute to a guy who most of the world will never know, but lives on in the minds of those who did.