We must endeavour to make sense of this, pick up the pieces and go forward

Dear Editor,

The first inkling of a powerful, still not come-to-grips with, shock, came via the telephone. It was a familiar woman in tears asking whether I heard or knew.  Until then, I didn’t know anything, would not have associated any such thing, to something as horrible as the reported suicide of young Ahren Singh.  Now the whole Marian community is reeling in disbelief and anguish.

From my more than a few years there, I knew this little child, then a growing boy, an always an ever-inquiring student, as someone with tremendous promise. For even at that stripling stage, the glow of promise was there; it was different and special. To say that Ahren was assertive would be an understatement, as I think that irrepressible would more fit the widening contours of his expansive mind.  He made himself know, and what he didn’t know he sought out with energy and passion.  God! He will be missed.  Guyana missed out on a potential stalwart of likely rare talent, a contributor no longer now that he is gone in one of the worst ways possible.  That is our loss.  And his family and the extended Marian community feel the piercing pain.

And pain it is, for the follow up inquiries I made were all characterized by a word: shock.  That was accompanied by grief and disbelief, even from those who did not know him. The pain has to be heavy to those closest; it is that way for those some distance away.  For the now departed Ahren Singh was no stranger to those in the vicinity, always a bundle of energy, of inquiry, of devotion to duty.  I never shared classroom space with him as he was, at the time, in the junior classes; but there was occasion to contribute to the Marian Journalism Club and its monthly newsletter, The Pendance, in which Ahren was a spirited participant.  My assessment was that with careful grooming he would be a force to reckon with, in time to come, in the field of his choice. Now we who possess the faith must leave future grooming in those hands in another place, that better place reserved for gifted students; in those hands that are infinitely better than ours, and to where we commend his spirit.

I wish it were not so, that this young life snuffed out so early would have spent many more years with us, and given to this country so much of what it needs, but does not come anywhere near to having. For whatever reason, this cruel unyielding land of ours has taken too many too quickly in circumstances too overpowering in their nearness.  Once again, the frailty of this existence is underscored, as we struggle to rise above the demands of our time and the harsh realities in this country.

This one is jarring. This one was unthought of and unseen and totally unexpected. And for all those things, it is found so intolerable, so inexplicable, so sometimes unacceptable. As Ahrens Singh goes, hopefully some light will come that brings wisdoms. The first is that we take nothing for granted. The next is that we are due nothing and nothing belongs to us.  And the last is that we must dig deep and find a way to continue somehow, despite our weaknesses, the limitations of our visions, and the draining of our spirit.

I pray for the strongest of spirits to be with the Singh family, including his mother, my former colleague.  May God in His grace be with each of them in this hour of great loss and the greatest pain.  May God in His mercy be with the mourning Marian Academy community.  May God be with all of us in this sometimes merciless and unsparing Guyana.  Now we must endeavour to make sense of this and pick up the pieces and go forward with some purpose in some manner toward some greater calling.  Rest in Peace, Ahren Singh.  Death came too early.  Yes! He died too young.

Yours faithfully,

GHK Lall