A HEARTFELT REPLY TO ALL MY WONDERFUL FRIENDS WHO
SENT ME CONDOLENCES IN SUCH FINE , SENTIMENTAL AND HEARTFELT RENDERINGS. ....
YOURS ... YVETTE
My dearest Ben and Betty, Annabel and Alec, Jerome
and Ann, Rhoda, Aleixo and Debra, Anna Marie and David, Joseph and Kelly,
Yvonne, Hyacinth, Astrid and Leo, George and Margaret, John , Father Ray, Father Tom, Lea, Celsa,
Hazel, Felix and Anita, Lenny, Johnny
and Marie, and ALL who wrote to Ben/Annabel/Jerome /and Rhoda ,and of course Rommel whose email I am responding to
en masse . Each of you has sent me a special treasured message which I'll not
forget, and since I want to say all that is in this e-mail to each and everyone
of you, I'll respond, with your kind permission, via Rommel's which just came
in.
My Dear Rommel,
It's been ages since I heard your name since I was
last in Zanzibar eons ago. Thank you so much for your lovely commentary on my
scribblings about Alaric. May he rest in
peace.
On a lighter note, I do remember that your father, Pallad Lobo was
Papa's very close friend. My , how the years have gone by since we were all
children in beautiful Zanzibar.
So many of the children of our dear parent's and
grandparent's friends have sent lovely notes to all of us at the passing of an
era now gone forever with all gone to heaven. We are now the Mzee's of the
family....now known as Mum, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle or Aunty. Hope we can,
despite our own frailties and ideosyncrasies ,
match up to our forebears with dignity and unwavering "joie de vivre ' , and with the same
unconditional love all of them bestowed upon us once upon a time when we were
young and beautiful....still are...right???
Thank you one and all for your kind condolences on
the passing of Alaric who grew up with all of us as our brother and
friend...and young uncle. You kindness in reaching from over the waves to send
such beautiful messages have truly touched my heart. I feel so lucky to have
you all in my memory bank. Old friendships die hard they say. How true .
Let not saddness or sorrow, keep us from keeping in
touch with each other from now on. I'm here ! You are there ! ... Let us never forget each other despite
time, distance or location. " Tuta onana Ndugu Wote ! "
Take care all of you and do stay in touch..My Fellow
" Wa Kijana Wananchi ya Unguja ".
All my love
Yvette
THANKS BEN FOR FORWARDING ME ROMMEL'S
NOTE...LOVE...YVETTE ......acknowledged
above ... y
At 05:28 AM 2/11/2013, you wrote:
Yvette - read good message from Romel. You can
respond directly to him as in the past Rom has been posting all the medical
updates which you have received via myself. Bye Ben
From: Rom Lobo <romandsue@yahoo.co.uk>
To: Benito DeSouza
<bennydesouza@btinternet.com>
Sent: Sunday, 10 February 2013, 16:36
Subject: Re: Farewell to Uncle Alaric
Hi Benny
What a beautiful Tribute your sister Yvette has paid
to your Uncle Alaric truly emotional!
I believe your Grandpa Agapitus and my Grandpa were
great friends hence he named his first son,( my dad), Palladius, Mariano, Agapitus Lobo.
Please convey Our Condolences from the Lobo family
to Yvette & family and all the De Souza family.
Yours in sympathy
Rom
PS Your
Grandpa was my Dad's Godfather.
Excellent tribute paid to Alaric ...By his Loving
Niece / "sister" Yvette.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
My dearest Ben, Betty, Annabel, Alexander, Jerome and Rhoda,
A FAREWELL TO :-
Malaika Astrid .....
and All My dearest friends who knew Alaric.
Sad greetings in the
aftermath of the news of Alaric's death.
I thought I'd
write a piece on him the youngest brother of our dearest
Mummy
A FAREWELL TO :-
UNCLE ALARIC GAMALIAL DE SOUZA SON OF AGAPITUS CLOROMIRO AND
CHRISPINA DE SOUZA OF GOA AND ZANZIBAR BROTHER OF OUR DEAREST MUMMY LAURIANNA,
PANTALEON, CARMEN-DOLLY, ALMIRA, JOAQUIM, AND A BABY BROTHER
We all remember
Alaric our youngest Uncle who went to school with us and grew up with us as our brother. He was the uncle-brother-friend
who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth for he was Mama's baby. She had
lost two sons ... Joaquim who was fondly called Joko, and also another son who
passed away when he was but a baby. I remember Mama telling me about Joko who
was studying in Bangalore with Mummy and Uncle Pantu ...and how he had
contracted Typhoid and by the time she got to Bombay from Zanzibar, it was too
late. What a heart ache for poor Mama.
It is only now as a
mother and grandmother myself that I fully understand my dearest Grandmother's
great sorrow in her loss.
What joy it must have been for her to learn that she was
expecting another child even as her own first born was expecting her first
child...me. I took the brunt of many jokes in school whenever Alaric was sent
to my class with a note to my teachers...and my friends would chant, "
Yvette, your Uncle is at the door ".... it was so funny to them to have
such a young uncle in our midst.
Perhaps it was this teasing that made Alaric very shy and
even more-so because he had a slight stammer. Alaric never retaliated by coming
back with a quick quip. He was a very contented child and remained so all his
life....and he would have given the shirt off his back to anyone regardless of
colour, creed or religion...and it is for this wonderful inner spirit that all
who really knew Alaric admired him and loved him, and today mourn the loss of
him.
Alaric was never judgemental of anyone and he was absolutely
averse to lies and backbiting. He just didn't have time for such nuances. He
was brutally honest and was not reluctant to cut off anyone who was less than
honest with him. If we all look into our hearts we will see this to be the
truth and might even wish that we too had the courage to speak our minds boldly
and without bias.
I remember too that Alaric loved bicycling and that his
Biking buddies were Felix Fernandes and Karpal Singh. They must have biked all
over Zanzibar, and also sported the best bikes in Zanzibar. Nothing was too
good for our grandma Chrispina's baby. So Alaric learnt to only buy the best
that money could buy.... and his status in life afforded him this luxury.
Grandpa Agapitus and Grandma Chrispina loved their youngest
child and lovingly doted on him and watched him grow into a young man until he
left Zanzibar and went to live in England.
I remember visiting Alaric in 1973 I think , in Portsmouth,
with Ben and family, and Jerome, and my two kids at that time. He took us to
Haling Island for a picnic where we had a wonderful time and sampled the lovely
food he had prepared for us all. He was so kind to all the children including
his own, and we all admired his gentleness and unbounding hospitality.
Alaric had many hidden talents and if one looked hard enough
one could find the hidden treasures that were the Hallmark of his character.
When we went to Goa for the 2008 Reunion of SJCSZ , Alaric
once more showed his tremendous hospitality and his joy at meeting all of us
after so many years.
With this I say farewell to this gentle soul who was my
uncle and my dearest Mummy's brother , and my dearest Mama's Baby . We called
our grandparents Mama and Papa. I am proud to have been his niece and I really
wish I could have been there to help him when he was alone and suffering.
But Alaric's Guardian Angel was looking after him when he
sent our wonderful friend whom I have named Malaika Astrid who is visiting Goa
at the moment, to spend the last days of Alaric's life with him, when she found
out that he was in Hospital ..... in his unfathomable pain with gangrene which
necessitated amputation of his leg...a horror he was spared by the Almighty
Father in heaven.
I guess Mama must have pleaded with God to spare her baby
this torment. Malaika Astrid prayed with Alaric and gave him comfort and also
prepared him for heaven, I think, in her ministry as Malaika ...Angel. I cannot
thank Astrid enough for her acts of gracious charity and mercy. Astrid is a
true Christian who lives her faith. I am proud to be her friend.
Thank you Astrid...Asante sana. Dieu borem korun.
Alaric is now in heaven in his mother's bosom and with his
Creator who loves not only Alaric but each and everyone of us.
Rest in peace dearest Uncle Alaric and may perpetual light
shine upon you. You are orphan no more......we are , having lost our parents,
grandparents , uncles and aunts on both sides of our family. I feel this loss
in some inexplicable way.
So my dearest Ben, Betty, Annabel, Alexander, Jerome and
Rhoda, Astrid and Friends, let us mourn not, for our dearly departed
uncle-brother-friend, but rather celebrate the gentle soul he was....with many
prayers and wonderful memories of an era gone forever.
All my love, with Mike's and my children's ..... Aleixo,
Anna Marie and Joseph's all of whom have special memories of their grand uncle
Alaric.
Yours everlovingly,
Yvette
MORE ADDED FROM YVETTE
THE BEST CHRISTMAS TREE PARTY IN ZANZIBAR OF YORE, and
ALARIC.
My dearest Georgey,
It is so good to finally hear from someone who attended that
Fairytale Christmas
Tree Party that my Grandfather and Grandmother whom we
called Papa and Mama,
gave for their friends and family, eons ago. I was a little
girl then, must have
been about 7 or 8 I think but I remember this Party to this
day without missing
a thing.
You see, as grand-daughter, I was privy to all the
preparations for the Party.
My grandfather was a wealthy businessman who had the best
Toy Shop and Sweet
shop in all of East Africa. He imported toys and sweets from
Britain and Europe
and India ...toys to fill every child's dream. I used to
drool over the dolls
and the magic painting books and I simply adored the barley
sugar sweets he
sold. Uncle Panty always had one for me whenever I went to
their house.
Over and above this side of the business, Papa had a bakery
to make bread and
fine confectioneries. He brought Goan bakers from Goa to
work for him, gave them
flats to live in whilst they were in his employ. Papa was a
true entrepreneur
and I loved going for drives in his old fashioned car of the
model-T era.
When the war came, the focus of his business changed, and so
Papa decided to
close down the Toy and Sweet sections of his business as
Britain and Europe were
not exporting toys. The focus was on the war to defeat
Hitler. My grandfather
used to tell me all about his business ventures. He also
taught me a lot about
astronomy, philosophy and believe it or not origami. And
from Mama I learnt
sewing, crocheting , tatting and lace-making with macrame,
added to which I
learnt music and art from Mummy, and writing from my
journalist Dad. I was such
a blest child, if only I'd known that at that time.
Anyway going back to that Christmas Party, Papa did not want
to sell his toys
for a song, so he decided to have a Big Christmas Party for
all his friends
together with their children, and of course us. It was an
exciting time.
Why I remember this party especially, is because I fell in
love with one
particular toy ..........
it was a His Master's Voice gramaphone complete with
horn amplifier, which was a smaller version of the one Papa
had for his LP's.
The toy one came with smaller records and played children's
songs and stories.
Papa had two of these. I begged him to give me one. I was
told that one was for
Alaric and the other was to be drawn for at the Party, and
that if I was lucky I
might win it. How I prayed I would win it.
At the Party we were all dress up in our glad rags and there
was music and
running around as children are wont to do. After a
scrumptious meal and
home-made ice cream we were all gathered into the big Hall
and then Father
Christmas arrived with a big bag filled with sweets. He
sounded like Uncle Bras
or Uncle Frank Machado....we were to call our parents
friends, uncle or aunty.
The he started giving out presents to all the children . The
girls received
dolls, skipping ropes with ball-bearing handles, and magic
colouring books. And
the boys received wind-up cars, trucks, trains, Mecchano
sets Tinker-toy sets
and puzzles and board games. Now each gift had been
beautifully wrapped and we
were told to save the number that was attached to the
wrapper for the big draw
later.
I received a beautiful doll as did most of the girls, but my
heart was with the
gramaphone. I took my gift and put it in a drawer in uncle
Pantu's room and
forgot about it as I wanted to play with the children.
I missed the big moment when Father Christmas pulled out
number 6 from the hat,
for the first prize. Nobody came forward. Almira and Dolly
came to me and asked
me what number I had. I didn't remember. So I took them to
the draw where, you
guessed it, number 6 was on my wrapper. They ran with me to
Father Christmas and
I was the winner of that beautiful gramaphone. I cried and
hugged Papa and Mama
and everybody in sight. Was the draw rigged??? Now , when I
think about it , it
must have been. At that time, I just knew I was the luckiest
girl in the whole
world.
A few years ago I found a miniature music box just like that
grammaphone...it
plays Moon River...I just had to buy it to perpetuate my
childhood memories !
Crazy ??? May be !!!
So my dearest Georgey, Ben and Annabel, Jerome and Rhoda,
here is a piece of
history about our Papa and Mama and Aunts and Uncles you
wouldn't remember or
know about. I'm glad you, Georgey, opened that window in my
memory of a
wonderful time when we were children and garnered wonderful
memories to last a
life-time. You would not have known the inside scoop. Eh??
After that Party, because of the war, Papa had to let go of
his Goan employees,
some of whom remained in Zanzibar whilst others scattered in
East Africa or went
back to Goa.
Now Alaric grew up in that home of much love where nothing
was wanting.
In 2008, at the SJCSZ Reunion in Goa, we went to visit
Alaric in his home , way
up in the penthouse, I called it. Had to climb 5 flights of stairs with my
recently acquired new knees. His living room was decorated
with Zanzibar
carvings and art works. He had the latest computer and Hi-fi
system, two
bedrooms, a kitchen and two verandahs with high rot-iron
gates for protection.
He had his maid serve us with lovely eats and chai. He was
living like maharaja.
All who visited him there will attest to this I'm sure.
Geogey, I wish you had visited Alaric, or spoken to him at
the Reunion. You
would have seen that he lacked for nothing, and that he
would have given you the
shirt off his back, had you thanked him, as you say, for
that wonderful
Christmas Party his Papa and Mama had thrown for all of us
lucky ones eons ago
when he, you and I were children.
Lots of love, Georgie, and lots of Blessings too.
