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Denzil D. Modeste RIP |
Monday
April 28th, 2008: It is very, very
difficult for me to say goodbye in this
fashion to a fallen fighter whom we had
all hoped would have gone on much longer
in fulfillment of a life of promise and
dedication to the craft of journalism,
his family, country, party, community
and friends, with that sense of purpose
that he had come to represent to all who
came to know him.
[WATCH TRIBUTE VIDEO]
But as we
all know, Man proposes and God disposes!
Denzil
Modeste was a solid Grenadian who
represented a certain sensibility, a
sense of personal place, compassion and
caring. True, he did not belong to the
glitterati or bling-bling social posses;
but to those of us whom he accepted into
the cave of his heart, he represented
the best in terms of the values of
kindness and charity. His own sense of
mission and passionate confidence in the
validity and rightness of his aims
fitted perfectly into the tradition of
voluntary service on which his native
country, Grenada, in its formative years
was built.
As an
active member of the New National Party
(NNP) giving service through its public
relations arm, brother Denzil was both
thinker and activist. I can see him now,
steeped in the work of our party dealing
with, and defending objective truths
about the success of our mission in
transforming the social and economic
landscape of our country over these past
twelve years. I see him changing like
the sky from sparkling laughter to
wondering thoughtfulness as he watched
the politics of the nation unfold.
His was an
intellect that was slow in operation but
deadly sure in conclusion. In many ways,
the thrust and parry of political life
in Grenada, symbolised an extreme of
experience for Denzil, yet he was
untouched by it. This was how he was
able to build bridges of professional
friendships across the media landscape
of Grenada and fought in defence of the
belief that Grenada’s youthful
nationhood could not be preserved by
extremism of either the Left or the
Right.
Our dear
brother Denzil understood that as a
people, we do not succeed by living
discrete lives but by seeing ourselves
as streams of life, braiding our
currents together, affecting and
carrying one another forward.
We will
never know whether Denzil harboured
ambition of entering representational
politics, but what we do know is that he
was a fierce and loyal soldier to the
cause of the New National Party(NNP);
the kind of positive and assertive
energy any political movement would have
been proud to have.
Up close
and personal, Denzil had found a new
lease of energy in the last months of
his life in the execution of his
politics and music, as a result of the
new levels of talent the party was able
to attract.
He was
boundless in his energy and relentless
in his quest to succeed. I will always
laud his willingness to give to his
country his talent without an air of
arrogance. His attributes were
incredible. Life for brother Denzil,
like most Grenadians of his generation,
could not have been easy, yet he was
“easy like a Sunday morning”- easy on
our eyes, on our spirit, on our
surroundings, and on our lives.
Denzil’s
success was made possible by his
application of hard work, by grit and
stamina in face of seemingly
insurmountable odds, by never abandoning
his children, loved ones and his party,
by an iron-will and by an understanding
of the presence of others besides
oneself in the universe.
Politics to
this soldier of activism was not just a
way to live but a way to live greatly.
The man we salute for the final time
this afternoon had neither wealth nor
power, but instead had charity of spirit
and the reach of the soul. One did not
need to know him personally to feel
this, although knowing him brought
confirmation.
His sense
of humour and urbanity was, in large
part, a mask to protect himself from a
world that so easily confuses humility,
decency and civility with weakness,
sentiment with unreality and modesty
with a lack of political astuteness.
Make no
mistake about it: Denzil was no saint.
No man who pounded his political
opponents with words and music the way
he did could ever claim sainthood; and
we dare not bestow upon him qualities he
himself would reject as obscene. He
liked a good fight even when it occurred
in places where angels feared to walk.
I share
these things with you my brothers and
sisters on the occasion of Denzil
Modestes’ funeral because to honour and
celebrate his life means to celebrate
and honour all of it. We are here
celebrating a fulfilled life; a life
lived out with courage, determination,
joy and purpose.
And so I
say to his children, companion, family
members, friends, party members and
supporters: if tears come, they will be
tears of feeling the loss of a mighty
presence in our lives but not tears of
sadness for his death.
I am
certain that time will cool the anger of
loosing him in such a sudden fashion and
it will soften the intense sadness of
missing him. This is nature’s plan for
those who must continue to live.
That Denzil
“Dee” Modeste will be missed is
impatient of debate. His gift to us is
the legacy of knowing that opting for
what is best for one’s family, friends,
community and country, as against what
is best for oneself, is the substance of
patriotism.
Thanks be
to God for his life.
On behalf
of the entire membership of the New
National Party (NNP) I bid our fallen
hero good-bye with these words:
“A heart of
gold stopped beating, two Shining eyes
at rest
God broke
our hearts to prove he only Takes the
best
God knows
you had to leave us, but You didn’t go
alone
For parts
of us went with you the Day he took you
home
To some
you’ll be forgotten, to Others just part
of the past
But to us,
who love and lost you, Your memory will
always last”.
Rest well
great warrior and friend, until… |
