A POTRAIT OF MY FRIEND
Dear journalists,
As a friend of Andrew, I am extremely moved by his departure.
I met him as a boy, when he helped a relative to be located through the Herald in the ‘years of lead.’ That he achieved. He saved his life like that. I admired in silence this Anglo-Argentinian journalist, capable of risking his life for others (whom he did not know) just in the darkest nights of Argentina. Over time, in the 1990s, we became friends. Over the last few months, he gave me a hand with a work that will be released at the end of the year. His capacity for work and the enormous range of his contacts and friendships were surprising. Everything was offered with generosity and a lot of humility. ZERO EGO.
When I asked him if he had not been afraid of being “sucked up” during the dictatorship, he replied that he was always afraid of the military government, but never cowardly enough to cover up the facts that he denounced in the Herald.
I attach the last emails from Andrew that he sent. A recurring theme for him was his asthma. A brutal weight that he tolerated stoically and that marked many hours of his life. In spite of that, he worked hard, helped his friends, loved and enjoyed life, knowing well in advance the value of each hour.
Everyone who lives with the health condition that Andrew faced knows how difficult it is to sit on a computer and work in an immobile position, suffering from the discomforts of asthma. In spite of that, this enormous journalist met deadlines to the letter. In these emails, you can appreciate the hard work it took to move permanently from the neighbourhood of Barracas to his place in the world that was Larroque in Entre Ríos. And obviously the enormous effort that demanded he manage his life alongside his illness.
With a bulletproof sense of humour, in his spirit he mixed the best of two cultures. He was an admirer of Graham Greene and a father committed to all his children. His youngest child, adopted with deep love, is direct proof of the kind of human being he was. With these simple lines, my tribute to a great man. Thank you for everything Andrew!
Pedro Alberto Filipuzzi
Via email