Dear Editor,
I knew Colin Smith, editor of the Catholic Standard, for about six years only. It was a short and a long, but always good, six years. Now he is gone, reminding all of us of the fragility of this earthly existence, and returning us to those roots that we should embrace. I do, and I thank him.
We had many a long conversation: low keyed, low intensity. It was about the Church and its state, and the state of the State. Colin was as good a listener as I have had the good fortune to discern in our association. In listening to him, I learned, for he was a fount of knowledge. Many things from times past, and what is now; of how we were, and where we are today; and alongside those, the unchanging nature of change. He had that knack of gathering his thoughts and expressing them in that low volume pitch that was his own trademark. It was a rare Christian gift. Unlike other Guyanese, Colin did not take himself seriously, was not too impressed with his own sparkle and the length of his shadow. He was a man comfortable in his own skin.
We could speak of many things: Black Lives, political life in Guyana, and the implications for the wider social welfare, family and always the place and position of our Church in the scheme of things. In the context of his passing, it is ironic that we also touched many times upon health, and I am amazed at where things ended up, and how abruptly. In his hospitalization and related passing I again found much revealing, in the resilience of his spirit, the endurance of his strength. This man Colin was a fighter of remarkable stamina.
Now that he is no longer here, with that steady, comforting presence of his, his immediate family and relations will feel the sharp sting of piercing loss. The Catholic Standard media family will have a different feel, because he is not there. And Guyana’s wider Roman Catholic Church family mourns the loss of a stalwart, a longstanding presence and contributor of conspicuous humility, simplicity, dignity, and Christian citizenship. Colin was one of those quiet decent Guyanese, who I was blessed to know, to share time with and, on occasion, space in the all too brief span that I knew him.
He will be missed for being more than a friend. He was a brother, who brought a lot to the table in a thoughtful, unobtrusive way. To identify someone as a brother in Guyana, is not something so easy for me to say, since I don’t go about looking for them, or embrace them this readily. In this briefest of tributes that I can share of him, let this be sufficient: Colin Smith was a good man: a good family man, a good Guyanese man, and a good Christian man. He will be missed. I will miss him. Rest in peace, friend and brother.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall