Two days ago, out of the blue, I had an awful experience with the sudden death of a friend here, Colin Ming, in a traffic accident (he was on a motorbike) that just shattered me. Why I’m not really sure. We were not boyhood companions, but perhaps because our friendship goes back to those times, many years ago, when the Tradewinds trips to Guyana began, and my career as a musician was building, and Colin’s love for the songs was a kind of glue, always there between us as is our love for Guyana. Very early I saw he was a rock, this guy, with various issues in Guyana. He was very involved in various sports matters, a very principled man, and it was a joy to be around him. Marvellous sense of humour, always in play, and his laugh was like bells ringing; it just took him over completely, no matter what the occasion, where he was, who was listening…Colin’s laugh would consume him, total release, it would transform his face, affecting people nearby, causing stares, he didn’t seem to notice the reaction, and his ethics, his veracity, those things were always in play, day or night, big or small. His death truly rocked me. Partly because it was so sudden and so unswerving. I heard he was in a traffic accident and in hospital, and almost in the same breath, I heard he had been severely injured, and that he had died. It tore me up. Colin, for me, was one of those totally good people, no blemishes I knew of, always the same, always supporting and amiable and solid. A friend with no drama, no issues, everything easy. I felt his loss as if he had been my son. I don’t really know why. We were not daily companions, by any means, but I felt this weight of grief; it brought me to tears. It’s two days now and I’m still stunned and not sure as to why it did me in so. Perhaps the totally pointless manner of his going, so much so I know I would not be able to go to his funeral; a deep, deep sadness and so meaningless. It came like a wave, unravelled me, and the crazy suddenness of it, and the quality this man had, naturally so, no fanfare, no splashy behaviour, just a class individual, and to be taken like that; in my head, it felt like some kind of madness.