Thank you, Brian Breeze

THE EDITOR Sir:

I WOULD like to, this Christmas season, extend my heartfelt belated congratulations to Mr Brian Breeze for his most adoring admiration of our culture in Jamaica. He actually received the Order of Distinction, Officer Class, for his fantastic work in sports and nation-building. Though not born in Jamaica, I knew, as a little boy in the late 1960s, when he came to our blessed shores to live among us. He lived close to me in Copperwood, Lucea, in Hanover. This was long before I started going to Rusea’s High School. He taught geography at my alma mater for a number of years.

Mr Breeze was a consummate professional who became part of the locals’ lives quite quickly. Though born in the United Kingdom, he never looked back on his country of birth and spent his best years in Jamaica nurturing the children of the dispossessed and downtrodden, and later as a principal of Green Island High. In his early years, one could see him playing soccer and cricket on a regular basis until it became an uphill task.

He nurtured many cricketers to become prominent proponents of the art. My elder brother, Lloyd, was nurtured by him to make the then Benson and Hedges Under-19 Jamaica cricket team in 1975 with the likes of legendary Michael Holding, Jeffery Dujon, Michael Bernard Sr, and the great Richard ‘Danny Germs’ Austin. Before he returned to his homeland in the latter part of 2017, he was president of the Lucas Cricket Club, where he oversaw the likes of Christopher Andrew Gayle. We should never allow his memory to perish in his living years. He has done too much for our upliftment and subsequent advancement.

Thank you, Brian!

Paris Taylor paristaylor82@hotmail.com Greater Portmore