The Same Yesterday and Today and Tomorrow

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ince the installation of my father as Governor General, I have listened to the derision of men within the Labour Party, who should know better, come out in passionate anger against his appointment, and waited for men, who should know, sit in silent retreat, and say nothing in defence of him.

I wanted to rush to his defence, but thought better of it, convinced that the message would be lost in the voice of the messenger. Then I thought of Christ’s choosing of the 12 apostles and his purpose in having done so; that they who knew him best would best be able to go out and preach the gospel. Who better then than the daughter of Neville Cenac to speak on the subject of her father; the one who has sat at his feet like Mary and drank in his every word; who walked with him, arm in arm into his constituency; spent time at his office; and sat at the table with him and listened as he regaled us all with stories of his youth and his politics. Who better than the one who was raised on a steady diet of his good offerings of religion, politics, morals, kindness and generosity as well as his old favorites, justice, love and charity, interspersed with Shakespeare and C. S. Lewis.

The basest nature of man is to be “nasty and brutish” and I can therefore well understand why certain men, most men, would revile at the qualities apparent in a man like my father. He seems to many, “too good to be true.” It is hard to believe that one man can possess so much goodness. And I do not extol my father’s virtues beyond their measure simply because he is my father and I’m capable of seeing him in only one light. I extol his virtues because in the light of day, and through the fullness of time (41 years), my father has shown himself to me and the world to be “the same yesterday and today…,” as I expect he will be tomorrow.

These are the philosophies we, his 5 children, were raised on:

• God first, country second.

• Country before party.

• Justice for all, malice toward none.

• Every man, irrespective of party colours must be allowed to earn a bread for his family.

• Politics is the greatest platform from which a man can do the greatest good.

• Let people do to you, but never do to them (always said in creole).

• Read, read, read like a fool.

• Always do the right thing.

• Never speak or act in such a way that you cannot look every man in the eye.

• Respect everyone, even little children, because they too grow up, and children never forget.

• To forgive is divine.

My father has had one purpose in his life, and that has been to serve God and his country. All my life I have known my father to be only one thing, a man who wanted to do good and to serve the poor. While he may not have succeeded in eradicating poverty, what he did bring to every man, woman and child whose life he touched, was warmth, kindness, a helping hand, and always a firm word about the power of reading and education to change the lives of families. For he too had known poverty; but for the persistence of his father, who well schooled him in the arts, he was able to rise to where he stands today.

When I made the decision to enter the political fray at such a young age, I did so with the full knowledge that I was stepping into an arena that would undoubtedly, at some point, require me to stand in the firing line for what I believed in. That came much sooner than I expected, but I stood firm, not because my father stood beside me but because he had stood with me all my life and told me, that “no man should make the decision to enter into politics unless he has a genuine love of people.”

My father seeks to govern himself only by what is right and good as defined by God and law. I have heard people in my father’s constituency chastise him for helping persons who were well known detractors of his and his party, and I have heard my father reply that he is not the representative for only those who supported him but for everyone, and that he will not be the obstacle to a man earning a living for his family. I have seen those in politics who will not now speak out openly in defence of my father attend him at home or call him for his counsel and advice; men who on another day have said most unsavory things about him. Did my father know these things as I did? Absolutely. Why then would he choose to counsel and advise them you might ask. I asked the same question of him to.  His answer? “My feelings, your feelings are not what is important. If what I say and do to help them helps the country, then I will always give them my best advice. Whether they choose to take it or not is up to them.”

When I have been the most impassioned about a matter in which I have believed myself to be right, it has been my father who has reprimanded me and shown me how wrong I have been. It has been my father who has taught me to divorce my personal feelings and desires from situations and circumstances. If my father, who loves me, beyond measure, could firmly reprove me and see my faults and flaws to put me right, how much more would he do in his current position to make right be done.

I can say, unabashedly, that my father has never said and done one thing in private that he has not carried over into his public life. And when the story of his life is finally and honestly recounted, he will not be found to be wanting. Perfection he is not, but a man striving for perfection he most certainly is. He is a man who has always tried to live a life that was pleasing to God and that would be an example for his children and his wife. And as his daughter, I have had no better or more perfect model. I am blessed to call him daddy and Saint Lucia has been blessed to have him as her son.