It is of tremendous respect, honour and much admiration that I pay some tribute to the late Mr Charles Christopher Gumbs, often affectionately called Charlie, who, over the years, as far back during the period of my student dental career when I would visit home from the United States for a short summer vacation, we had become friends. This friendship began accidentally and I have been the recipient from this union, of a wealth of knowledge and understanding that relates to the human experience, and has afforded me a cognitive liberation, unqualified by traditional barometers of education and finance, dual parameters that are often perceived to lead towards a path of success.
The reason why our friendship was accidental was that Charlie would ask me about my deceased uncle, Dr Ernest A Brooks, who became a dentist and who had worked as a customs officer in Anguilla before leaving to further his studies. A respectable friendship between my uncle and Charlie began before he left Anguilla to study. Charlie always reminded me of how joyful and satisfied he was that my uncle had decided to leave Anguilla and “get an education”. Charlie would say to me, repeatedly, that he did not go to school, and he is not an educated man, but that having an education would make a better life for yourself and your family. This topic of education, and why he worked hard so that his children could get an education, often was said with tears.
Charlie was passionate about the importance of education and the hierarchy of values that drove him during his early daily life, included the value of education. He shared with me that at the age of nine years he left home to work in the cane fields of Santo Domingo and that after a return home, with the financial gains of his labour, his mother suggested to him that his younger brother, Raphael, should go with him to Santo Domingo to work. Charlie was saddened by the thought and, having some remorse himself about not attending school, he pleaded and begged his mother not to send his brother with him to work in the cane fields. He reminded his mother that he was already not attending school and that it would be a shame for Raphael to be taken out of school. “Let him stay in school,” Charlie told his mother. It is admirable to note that Charlie at such a tender age, exemplified a mature readiness, and was engaging with a mindset and reasoning that called for such a high degree of self sacrifice in order for a more prosperous future, a promise of academic and financial freedom for his family. This wisdom that Charlie demonstrated can only be described as a high level of unselfishness that was unprecedented, particularly during an environment of family hardship and difficulty.
This unselfish nature of Charlie started at a young age and continued to adulthood. He shared with me that during one of his travels at sea, between St Marten and Anguilla, a boat visible in the near distance was sinking and no one in his boat would volunteer to give assistance. Without hesitation, he jumped in the water, swam to the sinking boat and rescued a young girl. Charlie returned but was unable to save the mother of the child. These acts of unselfish behaviour are a mark of bravery, commitment and leadership. Charlie exemplified them all with distinction. The entrepreneurial spirit of Charlie resulted in the development of many skills that Charlie used to take care of and provide for his family. From fisherman to sailor, from a herdsman to farming, from taxing to the tourism industry, Charlie’s input was felt on the island of Anguilla, his home, when life on the island was very difficult.
Charlie was born in 1910. This was a period shortly after the end of slavery which was in 1838. The islands were left with no infrastructure and very few ways to earn a living. The islands were devastated, very little money generated, limited to no industry apart from agriculture, fishing and livestock. Charlie’s great grandparents most likely were slaves or had become freed slaves, and fast forward to colonialism and the depression of the 1920s and 30s, economic survival for the Caribbean region was most difficult. With this backdrop, it is fascinating to note that with all the negative conditions around him and the region, for over 90 years, Charlie found creative ways to be a successful businessman, rising above expectations, in a hostile environment to an oasis of success. Could it be argued that Charlie was ahead of his timein terms of his vision, his plan, his commitment to family, his love for family, his entrepreneurial spirit and action, his kindness and civic duty?
I wrote the following poem after learning of the death of my friend Charlie who was my oldest patient:
CHARLIE
August had not come too soon, new life, a new birth to bloom; new hopes encrypt the horizon unseen
Charlie, in miniature form appeared yet infinite a life lived that marks indelible, so many lives known and unknown,
Embedded in his nature he was ambitious, a trait that echoed loudly from his youth to adulthood,
As a very young boy, Charlie willingly played the role, providing for his family when his peers they played and learned at school,
Hard work, intrinsic of this man, the order of his day, from fishing, to sailing, farming to herding, taxing to store owner Charlie did it his way,
He made sure his family had the best, from the outhouse to the in house, from the hurricane lamp to the electric lamp Charlie made it right,
Charlie was visionary, he was luminary, humorous, and he was of kindness, yet unfiltered when he wants to, and let you have “…a piece of his mind…”
Charlie was my friend and showed much gratitude, he witnessed often thanking God for making his life renewed,
Sometimes, with tears he wondered out loud, asking, why his God has been so kind? When others that he knew so well, are all gone and him behind,
We celebrate his life today, a true forebearer, our history knows, he loved his country and paid his price, a sacrifice that shows.
This moment now he cannot speak yet whispers to you and me. Can you hear him? It is that life he shared and lived and now in silence he whispers, can you hear him? Can you hear him?
