A Nevispages weekly feature by Curtis Morton Sr
The way I see it, only God is to be revered but there are a few human beings who can be adored.
I had my weekly submission all lined up, as I was challenged by a friend of mine, to make a presentation of THE WAY I SEE IT, as regards the covid-19 situation and the vaccine story etc. I was all set to take up the challenge, but I have since learnt of the passing of a man after my own heart. A man who I looked up to.
I almost said SIR Arthur Evelyn, but he was never bestowed with that distinct honour. The man was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word.
He was the first Minister of Tourism in the Nevis Island Administration, but before that he was a Pharmacist par excellence. A pioneer in this regard as well. The Evelyn’s Drugstore is an institution in its own rights.
The man was an entrepreneur, but not one just focused on financial gains. He got where he got to, by dint of hard work and sacrifice and what I especially liked about him, was his tendency to help persons who just could not afford it.
I have heard so many stories of persons who went to the drugstore with their prescriptions and did not have enough money to pay for what they required and Mr. Evelyn just let it SLIDE.
I can testify to the fact that he personally left his home, well after closing hours, to come to the Drugstore to fill prescriptions for persons in desperate need of medication.
If I was to use one word to describe the great man, it would be HUMBLE.
As a Minister of Government, he remained as humble as the gentleman we knew in the Drug store. His demeanor and attitude never changed and he remained always approachable.
I had a personal experience with him that I will never forget.
Some of you may know that I commenced Sports Journalism sometime around 1992 and co-hosted the popular program SPORTS MENU, alongside Carlisle Powell. Later on, it was just me alone and in those days computers and teleprompters were not yet invented. My entire sports program was handwritten and read from the original script.
That in itself was a problem because as I have said in another forum, MY HANDWRITING IS UNIQUE – to put it mildly. So, there were indeed occasions, when I was actually on the set and got to a word that I had written (mark you), and could not understand the word.
Well I newa!
Now those days, I was in the habit of buying these big yellow writing pads from Evelyn’s Drugstore, to write my sports news on. My sports files were filled with pages and pages of yellow paper with sports information.
Mr. Evelyn was an affable gentleman and so one day while I was buying one of the yellow pads, he engaged me in conversation and discovered the purpose that I was buying the pad for and without discussing it with his wife or anyone else, he told me there and then that he appreciated my sports program and the efforts that I was making voluntarily to serve the country. He made an arrangement that every six months I could come in and collect six of the big writing pads and hear this, he threw in six pens as well!
What a man!
As time passed by I was able to tell him that we could make the arrangement null and void because by then computers had been invented and after my initial; fear of the new phenomenon, I had eventually commenced working with computers.
Since then, we maintained that friendship and even after he became obviously ill and handed over the management to his children, we regularly exchanged pleasantries.
We had mutual respect for each other.
Just before he became warded at home, he spent hours at the Store, just greeting people and opening the door for them. Unfortunately, I did not get to see him after he was warded at home, but he was always in my thoughts.
I must salute all of those wonderful persons who helped to care for him in his latter days.
Without a doubt, Nevis has lost one of its finest sons.
A Butler’s man who came to town and blessed many.
May God help me that I would so live, that one day, we can shake hands on the streets of gold.
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?