Tribute To A Dying Dear Friend

Margie Dearest,
I have immortalised you in the only heartfelt way I know how to - by posting an email I last sent you, on my wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com blog; on the walls of my three Facebook pages (The Big Issue Ghana Facebook page, Kofi Thompson Facebook page, and Akyem Abuakwa Juaso Nature-Resource Reserve Facebook page); and on Modernghana.com, the link to which is posted below.

I don't think you quite understood just how much your open-mindedness impacted my life. Positively. That humane philosophy of yours, was the bedrock on which all my face-to-face interactions with other people were anchored, after learning it from you. What luck for me.

It is a philosophy-of-peace-and-humility that blesses one with the gift of a super-clear-prism through which individuals of all hues are seen and consequently interacted with, in awareness-enhancing-conversations in which shared lived-experiences, in the journey called life, devoid of prejudice and stereotyping, are exchanged.

Thank you for that blessing. Today's world is now dominated by populism driven by the backlash against political correctness. It is an era that needs your philosophy-of-tolerance. Definitely.

And thank you for your pure inter-racial-friendship with me, which was based on mutual respect - a friendship of shared-experiences that one daily prays many in your racial demographic, would be blessed to have too.

Alas, sadly, not many of them are so lucky to be free of the narrow-minded-world-view that unfortunately drives Western civilisation's many little-Hitlerites, of today.

As you know, unfortunately, many of them are so full of hatred - hatred that spews terrible-hate-speech: and even drives the unfortunately-unhinged-ones amongst them, to commit mass murder, on occasion.

One is also aware that many might disapprove of it - but one is confident that in reading this tribute to you, your only reaction will be to chuckle, and say to yourself:"How creative of Kofi, my special friend from Ghana!"

Thanks once again for your friendship, Margie. Words cannot describe what you meant to me.

And I shall always remember that you once developed cabin fever whiles staying with me in McCarthy Hill - which made for an afternoon dash for a stroll along the beach near the Panbros saltponds, that ended with you desperate for water, because you were parched. Literally.

And one also recalls the tears streaming down one's face as you stood at the entrance to the departure lounge at Accra's international airport (now a wondrous sight to behold: a bold statement of my beautiful country's status as a middle-income nation), leading to my not daring to look back at you waiting for me to turn my head in your direction to wave you goodbye.

You probably felt it strange that I rather chose to look straight ahead from the passenger seat, staring at the taxi's windscreen and quietly shedding tears at your leaving, because one sensed that somehow one would never see you again. Such is life, my friend.

Goodbye, dear special friend. Go in peace - for you were a true Amazon-Queen-of-Peace; a courageous thing to be, in a melting-pot-society, still wracked by the many unrighted-wrongs of the slavery-era, which singes the soul of your great nation. We will never forget you - and you will stay in our memories till our own dying day.

Finally, please click on the link below to see the way I have immortalised you online, knowing it will remain on the Internet, till the very end of time. Cool:

https://www.modernghana.com/news/976683/an-email-to-a-dying-friend.html