I have just heard of the passing away of my good friend Raleigh Colaco of Margao earlier this year.
Raleigh was a quiet, unassuming Goan with a solid moral character that he wore lightly on his psyche. He was a good friend from the time I went to Qatar in the late 70's. Always smiling, never criticizing. He was the kind of guy that you would take on a rowdy picnic or a dance where you knew you would have so much fun that you needed someone to bring you back safely. He did the same things we did, only his was the right way while we blurred the boundaries. in the early 80's he married Corrine, an East Indian girl (meaning native to the Bombay suburban area of Portuguese cultural background similar to the Goans) who was as nice as he was. They made the perfect couple. Then fate like it sometimes does, to disrupt the lives of the nicest, pointed it's cruel fingers at him and said "hey you, I'm going to take your happiness apart". Raleigh was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. This strikes about one in a million and is somewhat akin to multiple schlerosis. Since Raleigh could work no longer, he took his young bride and left to settle in Goa, while I was still in Qatar. His faith grew more rock solid than ever before and he became a born again Christian. Corrine took all of this in her stride. She must have been suffering intently to see her husband deteriorating but she like him, never complained. When I met Corrine a couple of days ago here in Toronto while she came on a holiday, she filled me in with the gaps of time that had elapsed since I last saw them. She was all praise for him and how he never once asked why this had to happen. What she didn't say was that she had devoted almost all her life to caring for him. Someone whom she had just married when he was struck with this misfortune. Giving up her time, her energy, her career and her joys to be next to his side, serving him and his many needs. She told me of the beautiful friendships that they formed and the help that they received from many quarters. How the born again community in Margao remained steadfastly faithful to his spritual needs. She also told me that Raleigh and Valmiki Faleiro were seminarians together somewhere ago in the mists of time and that they never forgot their friendship. Raleigh survived motor neurone for 23 years while most with that disease rarely survive 5. He saw his young baby grow up to be a smart boy and go to Dubai to make a life. Raleigh may have been in pain often, but he never forgot to be happy always. I stand at attention, click my shoes together, bring my right palm straightened stiffly, slowly to my forehead, in the smartest salute I can muster. Goodbye Raleigh, see ya sometime and good luck Corrine, to better times. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/attachments/20060829/077e43e0/attachment.htm _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
