To the Great Beyond, along the River of No Return…

By any measure, Philomena Sahoye-Shury was simply an amazingly phenomenal woman.

‘Fireball’, as I knew her, died like she lived – up to the moment to her very last day, ultimately departing to the Great Beyond last Sunday, but not before joining all others of her age and graceful stage (91) on Saturday, as Guyana and the Caribbean celebrated elderly persons everywhere on Planet Earth.

I got to meet and know ‘Comrade Phil’ in 1993, after the PPP/Civic won the 1992 elections and learned quickly about her earlier career as a PPP stalwart, a genuine people’s servant and a woman committed not just to change, but continuing change.

Philomena always had that air of positivity about her – cheerful when happy, loud when vex, but always in the interest of achieving a party or political, civic or community objective, at all levels of the PPP’s struggle, before and after 1992.

Like so many Guyanese, Philomena Sahoye migrated to Canada when Guyana became unbearable for the likes of her, but with her heart anchored home and an eternal wish and will to return, which she did when democracy returned, with her husband Dr Vibert Shury.

She could have been counted-upon to raise candid issues at meetings that others might have considered uncomfortable — but that was ‘Fireball’, who never liked leaving troublesome issues to worsen.

“You must nurse the cut before it becomes a sore,” she wisely advised me — more than once.

‘Phil’ was a trade union activist, but I tended to follow her performance as a Local Government councilor in the Office of the Mayor and City Council, where she built a reputation as a firm ‘minority’ (opposition) firebrand, even while the PPP/Civic was in office, eventually rising to Deputy Mayor after the PPP/Civic was elected – and often serving as Acting Mayor.

I was in Georgetown (temporarily in a wheelchair) one month after her 90th birthday last year and sent greetings through Shirley Edwards, another long-standing veteran PPP parliamentarian and Central Committee member who served with distinction before time and age counted them out of the hot daily pace of activism that had carved them over long years of political action and life risk, especially during the PPP’s 28 long years in opposition (1964 to 1992).

I’ve always been glad that people their age who’ve contributed to parliament have been and are still being visited by the President Irfaan Ali, with such visits now institutionalized, the last one to Lethem by the Clerk of Parliament and including honouring one gentleman I suspect might very well be the famous ‘PPP Charlie’ whose name was always in the news headlines at election time during the struggle for Restoration of Democracy.

I’m also pleased by government’s recent decision to form a ‘Century Club’ to honor and give automatic, deserving public assistance, in different ways, to centenarians, of which 90 are recorded, but there must be more.

100 is an age everyone wishes to reach after achieving 65 and 70 and starting to slow down gracefully, while looking ahead and hoping to enjoy the rest of their long lives in peace and comfort, with family and visited by friends, supported by children and grands – and always by the government of the day.

Indeed, the likes on Philomena and Shirley – and current Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira – never wavered in their commitment and contributions to the continuing struggle for progressive political change and restoration of democracy to Guyana.

A Chronicle report on October 2 headlined ‘Senior Care on International Day for the Elderly’ by Sandra Khan, also put the issue of the world’s elderly in focus, stating…
On Saturday October 1, 2022, the United Nations (UN) focused on seniors, those 65 years and over, celebrating International Day for the Elderly under the theme: “Resilience of older persons in a changing world” so they can grow old with dignity.

The genesis dated back to 1948 when the UN promoted “the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by older persons” and then later, in 1982, adopted the World Assembly on Ageing.

By 1990,the UN proclaimed October 1 as International Day for older persons, which was first commemorated in 1991.

The world is getting pronouncedly older with 900 million people currently over age 60.

It is predicted that by 2050 there will be two billion seniors, equivalent to 22 per cent of the world’s population, an unprecedented time when the elderly population will exceed the children’s population.

Universally, life expectancy has increased over the past decades from 48 years in 1950 to 68 years in 2010 due to the improvements in public health, access to clean water and safer foods and social development.

On average, men are expected to live 70 years and women 75 years; the latter group seemed to go an extra five years maybe because they are more responsive to healthcare advisories.

Guyana is ranked at 137 worldwide where life expectancy for both genders is 70 years, but in Hong Kong and Japan they enjoy the maximum life expectancy of 85 years, being ranked as the fourth and nineteenth most developed countries, respectively.

Phil, Shirley and Gail didn’t qualify to join the Ageing Club, but each could have aspired to eventual membership.

But, levity aside, the Guyana government’s decision for the state to actually adopt its centenarians is a welcome example that other CARICOM nations without such a policy can follow, as it’s the least a nation can do for its citizens who score that extremely rare milestone.

Always to be counted on to plan her moves carefully, Phil sat quietly and patiently in the departure lounge for her final voyage throughout Saturday, saying her quiet final farewells on the day the world observed older persons, then boarded last Sunday for her one-way trip along the River of no Return.

Now, that was the ‘Fireball’ I knew