Dear Editor,
For some time now we knew that Wordsworth McAndrew was not well but being a proud and determined man he bore his condition with great bravery.
He did finally yield to help from his community and did put in appearances at some of the events. My last meeting with Wordsworth was at the Guyana Folk Festival in New York in 2004. His sight was not that good and when I introduced myself by saying, “Wordsworth, do you remember me? I am Carl Veecock”, his immediate response was “ What wrong with you man! Carl I remember you” (I live in Toronto). I knew Mac well in his active days. We never bothered to call him Wordsworth, it was always Mac and to him it mattered not.
The occasional fall back to Wordsworth was always noticeable as if indicating that we were being formal. Mac was an engaging personality and feared not to let his voice be heard, sometimes, I would say, a bit on the loud side. But that was Mac, an individual I felt comfortable with, whether he was riding his bike, or walking long distances with his toes fiercely gripping his slippers while his dashiki flowed in the breeze. Mac always made himself comfortable.
Ken Corsbie did once write: “One of the enduring stories about Mac is that he towed his bride-to-be to church for the wedding ritual. True or false, it doesn’t matter, it’s a great Mac story and now entrenched in Guyana folklore.”
Not true or false, only true. Mac’s picture with his bride in her bridal dress sitting on the cross-bar of his bicycle with Mac seated and pedalling was splashed on the front page of the Guyana Graphic. I wish someone would retrieve it from the archives or perhaps from Mac’s treasures and republish it. It is a great Mac story but a true one.
Mac spent a lot of time crisscrossing Guyana and visiting all the oldest folks in the towns and villages to get from them their stories of their early lives, the customs they learnt from their parents, the information they gathered from their parents on their heritage and a multitude of information on the history and cultures of all Guyanese. He chose the oldest people to interview full well knowing that with their demise a lot of history would be lost. Mac made every attempt to capture lots of information which he shared in his radio programmes. I wonder if any of those tapes still exist.
The Government of Guyana should think strongly of recognising the work and life of Wordsworth McAndrew. His memory should be enshrined in the annals of Guyana and also be made visible to one and all.
May he rest in peace.
Yours faithfully,
Carl Veecock
