Remembering Brother Benn

My name is Bob Duncan and Benn was my friend. He reminded me of my father in many ways … I loved my father and I loved Benn. Benn was uncommonly strong, gentle, and caring. He was a noble man and it was a privilege to be his friend.

I met Benn through the Church. Sister Wendy Boyce introduced Benn to us when we were meeting at Meadowvale house 10 or 15 years ago. He and I met in a home meeting on Friday nights with many others and got to know each other socially and spiritually. I was one of several brothers who drove Benn to and from the meetings on Fridays and Sundays over the years. He and I talked a lot. I have many happy memories of Benn.

First of all, I remember the things that he told me from his life before I knew him. He once told me about something he used to do as a young boy. His mother would send him to walk to an Uncle’s property on the weekend and the uncle would send him back home with some vegetables and such things for his mother. I remember another time he told me what his mother said to him when he was a teenager who was big and strong enough to get into some trouble if he wasn’t careful: she told him “If trouble starts, you put your hands in your pockets and keep them there.” He told me that’s just what he did. He certainly loved his mother. He told me another time about getting a job as a young man (maybe 18? years old) at the US Airbase that used to be at Chaguaramas. He was proud of that. Later he had many happy but hard working years in the warehouses and docks of one of Trinidad’s main ports (Port of Spain?), eventually rising up the ranks until he was a supervisor. He was a respected and responsible man there and fondly remembered many friends from those days. I remember many things he told me about raising his family: shopping for food for them, cooking, applying ointments and remedies for ailments. He was a very caring father to his children in those times. In his later years, his care included many grandchildren and great grandchildren as they came along. I never met most of them of course since most were not in Toronto, but I have to say to you, Ricky and Lana: he talked of you with great love and when he talked about your children it was with great joy.

The reason that I share these old memories that were his and not mine (and that some of you know more accurately than me) is because they are precious mementos to me of the times when we shared such things with each other and became friends. More than that, to share these mementos with you (who are holding him so strongly and so dearly in your hearts right now) is the next best thing to talking to him one last time …. which is what I would really like to do.