Tuesday,
October 29 2013
Holy
Family Cathedral
Michael’s
Mount, Antigua
A TRIBUTE
Good afternoon, Church.
No more that burly gait
No more that joyous face
No more that radiant smile
No more that resonant voice
No more on this earth, my brother,
Cortright Mason
Yet, in my heart, he is here.
In my bones and in my marrow,
Carty lives on.
In my memory,
In my every conscious moment, he
stands beside me as he always did.
My brother, and my friend;
my true friend!
The chain of love he forged
Has not been broken by his
untimely death.
Nor has it been in the least bit
weakened.
If anything, the chain has grown
stronger.
Reaching beyond this mortal life
To that better place where
Carty must be
Laughing and happy in the company
of the Almighty.
I do not pretend that I do not feel
anger at his loss.
I do not pretend that my heart is
not
bursting with the grief of his
passing.
I do not pretend that I do not
question why.
I do all these things
And, I cry inside, as I weep
outside.
For Carty did not deserve to die so
young and so sudden.
So, we come today to
mourn the passing and celebrate the life of Cortright Mason, my friend, my brother,
my comrade. We all feel the deep sense
of loss for a loved one who is cut down in his prime enjoying the fullness of
life still filled with so much hope, so much dreams, so much love, and so much
more to give; so much more to share.
For Cortright Mason,
was still a man in his prime with today’s health care fifty (50) years is still
a young age, and none of us expected him to be cut down so suddenly without
warning, without him knowing that he had any major health issues, without any
time to say a proper goodbye.
But we have lived long
enough to know that life is not fair, and none of us are guaranteed this
precious gift of life.
We live every day by
the mercy of God, and to him we must give constant and incessant praise
accepting his mercies and using every day to do good, to be kind, to love, to
share, to live.
In a hymn written more
than 150 years ago and known by most of us across Antigua, the inspired
songwriter addressed two desires for which all humans yearn—love and joy:
There are depths of love
that I cannot know till I cross the
narrow sea,
There are heights of joy
that I may not reach till I rest in
peace with thee.
My friend, Cortright
Mason, was deeply loved by his family and friends, before he crossed that
narrow sea. We all experience the heights of joy which comes from knowing love,
as it flows between and within family. Love erases barriers erected from fear.
Cortright Mason was
born in Antigua 50 years ago, on February 4th 1963.
This island was then an
extremely poor colony with a future waiting to be shaped by our greatest
National Hero. Carty’s beginnings were humble, much the same as his parents’:
Gwendolyn James of Pares Village; and Hamil Mason of Willikies Village. He was
born when sugarcane and cotton dominated the landscape.
My friend was
nevertheless steeped in the culture of his island-country and village. He attended
Pares Secondary School and was an ardent and dedicated cricketer from childhood.
Carty was likely emulating
his athletic father—Hamil Mason— who was among the best all-rounder in Parish
League Cricket. Carty owned as much cricket gear as any professional cricketer.
He loved a cricket match even more than he loved a music concert, and spent his
scarce resources on mastering his favourite past-time.
Most of his friends knew
him as “Fungi” or “Golden Eye”; and many friends will remember Carty as the
very first engineer for the Burning Flames. He was a graduate of the Institute
of Audio Research, in New York, specializing in Audio Engineering.
Carty learned to
perfect many of his engineering skills at ABS, his first employer. Carty
ensured that everything was just right whenever and wherever the Burning Flames
played. He was meticulous and highly rated.
Carty provided his
engineering skills to 90% of all bands in Antigua, more often out of love for
his work than for any material reward. He was not an acquisitive man. He wanted
to be the best sound and technical engineer in Antigua, displaying his skills at
every venue where bands played.
Carty’s last big event
was the Wadadli Beer Calypso Monarch Competition at Carnival City, this past
August.
That was before he knew
that he was deathly ill.
I became a very close
friend of Carty through Annette Aflak, my cousin and Carty’s love. When Annette
became pregnant with Antoinette, I would place my ear on her growing bulge so
that the baby’s heartbeat could become audible to me. Procreation is a miracle.
Although Annette has
two brothers, Allan and Paul, I always felt that her parents received the
greatest joy from their only daughter and therefore loved her the most.
There are heights of joy
that one may not reach, till one rests peacefully with the inner self.
Yet, all sons know only
too well that many fathers are capable of withdrawing love temporarily, while
mothers love their children continuously and forever. My Uncle Aflak is a man;
he is a father, a great father!
The racial divide which
Annette and Carty crossed was cause for friction, at first. Yet, no-one in my
family loved and cared for Carty after Antoinette was born, like Annette’s
Daddy, my Uncle Aflak.
There are depths of love
that one cannot know, till one crosses certain narrow seas.
Christ, the son of God,
came to earth to share this message with all of God’s children. God is love! Love one another like God loves you.
It is surely the case
that Carty was very much loved, and that he showed love in abundance over his
50 years of living. He was the father of Cochien (Cochen),
Anesha, Shazierre, Darrien, Nicole, Laurel-Ann, Courtney, Teandra, Zenicia,
Tehrique and DeAundre, and Antoinette.
But, although he loved all his children,
Antoinette was his pride and joy, making him proud when she graduated from
Devry University in February, 2012. Up
until he was on his sick bed he insisted that she return to University to
complete her Bachelors Degree at Richmond University in London.
Within the final weeks of his life, Carty
turned his life over to God. While in the Baptist Hospital in Florida, he told
my sister Teresa-Anne that Annette was the best angel sent by God to rescue him
in eternity. He told Teresa-Anne how much he loved Annette’s parents and his
own parents, his Aunts and Grandmother, his children, and how close he felt to Annette’s
mom, Lolita.
He insisted on having the Hail Mary’s reproduced in writing so that he could read them at
will.
Carty before his passing forgave everyone that
hurt or wronged him, and he begged God to grant him forgiveness. He was
prepared to meet God. He was prepared to cross those narrow seas.
The 21st of October 2013 brought
with it an end to a well-lived life. My friend Carty Mason passed through this
earth and left his mark. A relatively poor, undiluted African-descendant male
from Willikies Village learned to love a Lebanese-descendant, but Antiguan born
woman from Crosbies. Love, we have seen, conquers all.
“But, man is lonely by birth
Man is only a pilgrim on earth
Born to be king
Time is but a temporary thing
Only alone while on earth….”
Antigua and Barbuda is about to celebrate its
32nd year of independence; and, since Carty’s birth in 1963, we are
about to hold the 12th General Election in our country’s history.
While these public events and milestones help
to define us as a people, our country relies collectively on the quality of the
private lives which we live in order to measure our progress.
Cortright Mason lived through
many changing scenes in life, in trouble and in joy. In the final analysis,
when he found God, my friend Carty found heights
of joy that only he can relate.
And as the Great
Lebanese Artist, Poet and Philosopher Khalil Gibral wrote, and I quote;
“The Reality of Life is Life
itself, whose beginning is not in the womb, and whose ending is not in the
grave. For the years that pass are
naught but a moment in eternal life; and the world of matter and all in it is
but a dream compared to the awakening which we call the terror of Death”.
“The soul is an
embryo in the body of
Man, and the day
of death is the
Day of
awakening, for it is the
Great era of
Labour and the rich
Hour of
creation”
“Death is an
ending to the son of
The earth, but
to the soul it is
The start, the
triumph of life”
Amen. - Ho'n Asot Michael, MP
