Death of Wayne

On Thursday 9th October 2008 your Uncle Wayne, mummy’s brother, lost his brave fight against liver cancer. I had recently sent away my passport for renewal and wasn’t sure when it would be returned to me. Luckily it came back the day after and I was able to book flights to Trinidad for myself and William to depart the next day – Saturday.
Kenny didn’t have a passport being less than 2 months old, so mummy arranged an emergency appointment at the passport office – an interview that was about to begin as I switched off my phone as the plane took off the next day.
This wasn’t the first time that William and I had made the flight – we had done it when Tanty Winnie died. That time the plane was all but empty and William spent the flight running around, making friends. This time the plane was full and we were sat at the back to the plane. A rather large women with mobility issues was in our block of 3 seats on the left hand side next to the window. She asked if she could have the outter seat so she could use the facilities – I agreed and William had the window seat, I was in the middle and the large lady next to the aisle.
She was an affable and chatty women and after skirting a few subjects she got onto her pet subject: how much she hated Bajans. For the best part of 7 hours she lay out, with forensic detail, what was wrong the island, the people, the economy … Over the years there have been various disputes between Trinidad and Barbados, usually over fishing rights.
The plane landed in Barbados to allow some people off, some others on and to refuel. As per usual once the passengers had disembarked a local cleaning crew entered and started removing the newspapers and other rubbish that had been left behind. The large lady was not impressed with the Bajans and started giving them a barracking for basically doing their jobs. All of this nastiness didn’t really register properly with me with at the time – the grief of losing a friend, the arrival of a new child and the triggering of the death and loss to cancer of my own mother clouded the episode.
I’d filled the landing cards in while in the air and we waited in the immigration queue as the immigration officers proceeded to process, at their usual snail pace, the 200ish people in front of us. I had put the landing cards into the picture pages in the passports. As we got called to the customs desk William decided to pull out the landing cards and throw them in the air. This prompted something that I have never seen before and since – a customs agent of TnT smiling.
The landing card hasn’t changed since my first visit in 2000. There is no place on the card for the phone number of the person you are staying with. So I don’t put a phone number on the card. When the immigration person asks me for the phone number of the person I’m staying with – and by asks usually tosses the form at me – I always apologise and say I don’t remember seeing that on the form. They tell me that it isn’t on the form and I say “Ohh” in a manner that conveys “How the fuck was I supposed to know that then?” I once got into an argument with the officer as I didn’t have a number for Grandpa Ken. The man didn’t allow me and mummy to come through together despite being married. “You don’t have a number for your father-in-law? Why not?” “Do you have one for your father-in-law?” “No” “Same reason.” “Stupes.” Stamps the landng card and lets me in.
The smiling officer didn’t want a number and when I explained we were here for a funeral, got us through in double quick time. Aunty Hazel picked us from the airport and drove us to Aunty Helen’s house were she was preparing for night three of Nine Nights.
Grandpa Ken was looking after a friends house just up the road from 24 and that is where we stayed. I only had one film on my laptop – X Men 2 and William and I watched it to death in between visiting 24 and spending the long evenings at 16 as 9 Nights progressed. I don’t remember what day Mummy and Kenny came in but eventually they did.
Up to that point Kenny would only go with Mummy. Anyone else trying to hold or comfort him would be rewarded with lung full after increasingly loud lungful of screaming. So in this new environment, the hottest weather Kenny had every know, unfamiliar sounds, smells and faces, I was known. And this is when we started to bond, when I was first able to pick him up and get a cuddle.
When Kenny was at 16 during the evenings the older ladies would wrap him up to keep him warm. Mummy would explain that Kenny had never known heat like this before and the coldest it got in Trinidad was still hotter than the hottest Kenny had ever known it England, and they would nod their understanding while mummy stripped him down to a vest. Only to turn her back and Kenny would be wrapped up again against the cold.