ON Thursday evening, while I was on the seawall, a man and a woman approached me, asked if I was Freddie Kissoon, then, the lady identified herself as Colonel Shahoud’s aunt, his mother’s sister.

She said she and her husband came for the funeral and will be leaving early Friday morning (yesterday). The resemblance to the fallen Guyanese hero was uncanny. Before I go further let me describe for you what happened on the esplanade of the newly renovated seawall that evening.

Most humans accept that the donkey, goat, sheep and cow are completely non-aggressive and they do not respond to attacks. My dog was sniffing in the grassy parapet next to the esplanade when the Colonel’s aunt said: “That cow is attacking your dog.”

I looked around and said cows are harmless but the colonel’s aunt insisted that the cow was going to attack my dog. I never saw anything like it and this will remain a rarity anywhere in the world in the animal kingdom. The cow charged my dog, and my scared dog kept moving and the cow kept going after my pet. I ran in front of the cow and snatched my dog away from the jaws of death.

I am contending that such an encounter involving the aggression of a cow is rare in the world. My witnesses are the aunt and uncle of the Guyanese hero, Colonel Michael Shahoud. The cow went away and both aunt and uncle began to describe the Shahoud family background.

She told me Colonel Shahoud is Portuguese from his mother side who had a tinge of Amerindian blood and his father, Michael Senior was Syrian. The colonel’s father worked at the Graphic newspaper as a journalist. At that time, the editor-in chief of the Graphic was Ricardo Smith.

I did not know Mr. Ricardo Smith was alive until I met his daughter, Melanie, at the cremation of Andaiye at Good Hope in 2019. I ran into Melanie a few months back at GBTI’s seawall head office and asked her if her father would appear on the Gildarie-Freddie Kissoon Show. She told me he was in his mid-nineties with full faculties so she can’t see why he wouldn’t.

Melanie gave me her mobile number, but I am unable to reach her. If you are reading this and you know Melanie Smith please ask her to make contact. My cell is 614-5927 and email is fredkissoon@yahoo.com. I would like to talk to Mr. Smith about Michael Shahoud Senior.

When I was growing up in Wortmanville there was a Syrian man named Shahoud that lived at the junction of Vlissengen Road and D’Urban Street. His house was second on Vlissengen Road on the western side next to a bakery which sat right at the junction. Mr. Shahoud was quiet and did not mix and objected to any small child playing on his bridge. I had that encounter with him. Could that have been the brother of Michael Shahoud Senior?

I spent about 40 minutes chatting with the aunt and uncle. As the conversation continued, I discovered that I knew Colonel Shahoud’s mother through a particular incident. The sister told me that the colonel’s mother’s married name is Pierre and she is the manager of GCIS. That is my car insurance company. About seven years ago, GCIS wrote me to say that my policy was past the deadline.

I went into the office with the notice and they informed me that they were out of printed documents and I will have to return. I complained about the timing – if they did not have printed policies then they should not have called me to come in plus there was the headache of finding parking.

A Portuguese woman came up, introduced herself as Mrs. Pierre, the manager. She apologised and told me in a few hours’ time, she will ask one of the drivers to deliver the document to my home. That was done. I would never have known that the lady I met seven years ago at GCIS is the mother of army hero, Michael Shahoud if it wasn’t for the encounter with her sister on the seawall last Thursday night.

I asked if I can meet with Mrs. Pierre but was told she is not in good health and has taken leave from GCIS. Her sister told me she has gone back to her family roots in New Amsterdam to recover. Mrs. Pierre had two children, the colonel and his sister. The sister died a few years ago. She was a nurse. Now with the death of the colonel, Mrs. Pierre is heart-broken. I wish the colonel’s mother everlasting good health. She gave Guyana a fantastic hero for a son.