I extend heartfelt sympathy to Mr. Hydar Ally and his family.

I was deeply moved by his letter reflecting on his wife’s death and published in the newspapers over the last few days.
I was so moved by this eulogy to his beloved wife, that I decided to forego my column this week and in its place I repeat the reflections penned by Mr. Ally on the passing of his dear wife.

Keith Burrowes

 THE GREATNESS OF SMALL THINGS
SOMETIMES we take small things and little acts of kindness for granted, actions which can mean a whole lot to people, especially during times of distress and need.

These thoughts dawned upon me as I mourned the passing of my own wife a few days ago. My family and I were overwhelmed by the outpouring of grief and condolences by people from all walks of life, in particular, those who knew her both in terms of her professional and personal life. Scores of people turned up at her funeral service which was kept very simple at her own request.

Every individual leaves on his or her passing a kind of legacy which may, or may not, be very well articulated or defined depending on the person’s stature or prominence in society. Great leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Cheddi Jagan have left legacies that have impacted on the minds and consciousness of millions of people at a global level.

Others, in their own quiet and simple ways have made their contributions at a local or community level but together they have, in one way or the other, helped to shape the thinking and consciousness of a countless number of people in ways sometimes they themselves may not be aware of. Many are what sociologists refer to as role models of reference groups to which people, in particular young people, aspire to be.

My wife, the late Bibi Yasmin Ally, was an embodiment of those principles and values. She spent her entire adult life in the teaching profession starting out in her teenage years as a pupil teacher and rising over the years, first as a trained teacher, then as a trained graduate teacher reaching the highest rank in the teaching profession as a Trained Graduate Headmistress before being promoted to ranks of the officer corps as District Education Officer.

During that period she would have moulded the minds of thousands of children, many of whom today have risen to positions of prominence. Yet she always remained a humble and simple person who never looked forward to rewards except that which would come to her as a matter of course.

If there is one thing that she valued very highly, it is the enduring values of humility and simplicity. Because of the nature of her illness, she was aware of the inevitable and started to make preparations for her departure.

One such act was to dictate her funeral announcement in which, in her usual thoroughness as an experienced teacher, she inserted the names of all those who she felt was sufficiently close to her to be highlighted. Those included her husband, her two children and of course her two grandchildren, her relatives and friends.

She was careful enough not to mention designations in the death announcement. Consistent with her philosophy of humility, designations were not material enough for public consumption. Her own designation as a former District Education Officer and as Headmistress and teacher of the several schools in which she taught was not something she wanted to put in the public domain. Nor did she want to be known as the wife of a Permanent Secretary, or the mother of a son who represented the country at the IDB in Washington or the mother of a daughter who presided over two Magistrate courts at Vigilance and Cove and John on the East Coast of Demerara.

She was a believer in the Holy Koran and “instructed” that she be buried according to Muslim rites. She wanted to be buried as soon as possible after death and not to delay her burial by waiting on relatives who reside overseas. Our son who was in Washington at the time barely managed to make it mere hours before her departure to her final resting place at the Ogle cemetery.

She placed a very high premium on public service and never stayed away from work unless it was impossible to so do. She worked up to the last day of her illness and had to be taken home from her office after it became clear to everyone at her workplace that she could not continue any more.

It is the small things in life that matter or what someone once referred to as the ‘greatness of small things’. I take this opportunity to convey my thanks to the several persons who attended her funeral service and who expressed words of comfort.

I wish in particular to thank His Excellency President, Donald Ramotar and First Lady Deolatchmee Ramotar, Prime Minister, Mr. Samuel Hinds, former President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, PPP General Secretary, Mr. Clement Rohee, former Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, the several Government Ministers and Senior Government Officials who showed up at the funeral and expressed words of comfort and condolences.

My gratitude is extended also to the members of the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana, the Imam and members of the Ogle Jamaat, the Doobay Renal Centre, the doctors and staff of the Woodlands and Georgetown Public Hospital for the medical services rendered to her during her period of illness and to the numerous others who assisted in one form or another.

HYDAR ALLY