Hon Asot Michael: EULOGY OF MR. ANTHONY GUILLAUME SARKIS

EUOLOGY OF MR. ANTHONY GUILLAUME SARKIS 

BORN ON 7^TH APRIL, 1946

DIED ON 14^TH APRIL, 2011

DELIVERED BY:

THE HONOURABLE ASOT A. MICHAEL

ON 18^TH APRIL, 2011

AT

ST. PIERRE & ST. PAUL CATHOLIC CHURCH IN POINTE-A-PITRE GUADELOUPE

The Reality of Life is Life itself, whose beginning is not in the womb, and whose ending is not in the grave.
For the years that pass are naught but a moment in eternal life;
and the world of matter and all in it is but a dream
compared to the awakening which we will call the terror of Death.

The soul is an embryo in the body of
Man, and the day of death is the
Day of awakening, for it is the
Great era of labor and the rich
Hour of Creation.

Death is an ending to the son of
The earth, but to the soul it is
The start, the triumph of life.
We have come today to mourn the passing and to celebrate the life of Anthony Sarkis, my Uncle Tony, my friend, my second father.
Everyone feels a deep sense of loss when a loved-one is cut-down in his prime, while enjoying the fullness of life. Uncle Tony was still filled with so much hope, so much love, so much more to give, so much more to share, and so many more dreams to fulfill.
Tony Sarkis was still a man in his prime; for, with the miracles of today’s health care, 65 years is still a young age. None of us expected him to be called to the Great Beyond so suddenly, without warning.
We have lived long enough to know that life is not fair, and none of us is guaranteed this precious gift of life to a ripe old age. We live everyday by the mercy of God and to him we must give constant and incessant praise, accepting his mercies and using everyday to do good, to be kind, to love, to share, and to grow.
WHO WAS ANTHONY SARKIS:
Anthony Guillaume Sarkis was born on 7th April 1946 and died on April 14, 2011, sixty-five years after entering on this good earth. He was born in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe. His father was Jean Sarkis, and his mother was Winifred Michael-Sarkis. Anthony was the fifth and last child of this happy couple; his father was born in Guadeloupe and his mother was born in Antigua, right next door. His only brother was Jean-Pierre Sarkis, and his three sisters are Hugette, Rose-Marie-who has predeceased him- and Josette, my mother.
Born on the eve of important historical changes and unforgettable events that would alter the society in which he grew up, Anthony Sarkis felt the tug of a new world on the cusp of his new tomorrow.
Yet, His family was traditionally industrious. They were the bulwark of the commercial life of Guadeloupe. They represented the mercantile community and the descendants of the new immigrants who brought renewed life and boundless energy to the business community. From his early years, Tony himself was full of energy; some may even say he was mischievous and spoilt.
TONY SARKIS attended Primary and Secondary school in Guadeloupe, and then went to Nice, France, to further his studies. No matter where he traveled, he regarded himself as a Guadeloupian. He established a close and friendly relationship with the grassroots people of Guadeloupe and, since he spent many months each year with his cousins and friends in Antigua, he was equally at home with the grassroots people of Antigua. It was a relationship of give and take. Sometimes they mistook his blustering manner for anger. Only to discover that beneath his bluster was a warm and giving human being.
ANTHONY “TONY” SARKIS is easily among the most remarkable Guadeloupians who lived here in the second-half of the 20th Century.
HOW DID TONY SARKIS BECOME?
Uncle Tony would come to Antigua frequently. He spent summers in St. John’s, on Nevis Street, in the West House. It was there that Tony learned to speak English fluently under the supervision of Evana, known to us all as Nanna. He loved her very much. As a child, he played with his cousins, with his namesake Anthony Michael, including Cecil George-John, and with the strangers that drifted into and out of the West House on Nevis Street. We thought of him as half-Antiguan for, though he spoke French, he spoke English with the same accent as we did.
Tony’s mother and father traveled to Antigua annually for visits. They would also transit Antigua on their way to and from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York. Tony would travel to Antigua to spend time with his parents when still a youth, but also after he had become a man. When Tony was twenty-seven years old, he was introduced to Shirley Michael. She was a student in Canada who was back home for Summer holidays. Josette, my mother, decided after some goading from her mother Winnie that Tony and Shirley should meet. Shirley, daughter of the late Louisa and Mitchell Michael, was Josette’s best friend and she was a beauty. She still is a beauty.
Tony fell in love with Shirley at first sight. On July 7, 1973, they were married and lived in Gosier, right here in Guadeloupe. He called her Boo-Boo, and she reciprocated with the identical term of endearment. They were madly in love with each other. Two children came of this marriage: Nathalie Sarkis, born April 10, 1975; and Jeano Sarkis, born August 11, 1978.
Tony was a very hardworking businessman who chose to work in his father’s furniture business known as Ameublement Jean Sarkis. Tony also chose to work in the massive warehouse where he was responsible for ensuring timely and precise deliveries. He loved intermingling with customers, and so his brother concentrated on the office work.
One constant, maintained by Tony Sarkis throughout all the changing scenes of his business activities, was: Reliance upon the hardworking and the diligent workers in the enterprise. Though he could at times be a hard taskmaster, he treasured his staff and they often enjoyed both his geniality and his generosity.
TONY SARKIS’ OTHER INTERESTS:
Tony Sarkis chose to be involved in sports, especially football and cycling. His brother and he sponsored and managed a football club known as RED STAR. Each time the Football World Cup was played, Tony would fly off to the host country to witness several games first-hand. He brought his Red Star team several times to Antigua to play against the National team there. He sat on the benches with his team.
Tony had a Bicycle Club known as Pedal du Levant or PDL. Tony’s generosity was expressed again and again in the part he played developing this team and ensuring entry of its members in competitions all across Guadeloupe.
Tony Sarkis was every inch a Guadeloupian, despite having grandparents born in Lebanon. He was proud of his Guadeloupian heritage, reveling in the fact that the very first Nobel Prize winner from the West Indies was born on this incredible island. He was a people’s man who was fully integrated into life in this society.
Tony loved people and was especially interested in uplifting those whose material well-being fell below the average. He was very generous to all, but he was especially generous to the downtrodden and the less fortunate. He was a true Samaritan. Like the Samaritan, he was not ethnically- one of the majority. But his integration into the society ran so deep that he gave no quarter to those who would seek to categorize him as anything but Guadeloupian. He would establish an unbreakable bond between himself and the grassroots people of Guadeloupe and Antigua, such that he vaulted the barriers erected by our societies.
In emphasizing this relationship between Tony and the less fortunate, I make the all-important connection between character and behaviour. The point he tried his best to make, departing significantly from the norm, was: The uses and Purposes of Wealth. Tony did not seek to accumulate wealth for wealth’s sake. He did not want to have millions in the banks. Wealth was a means to an end. To venture, to create enterprise, to enable others to achieve fulfillment and, above all, to create enterprises that could make Guadeloupe a proud nation, no matter its small size.
Today, I would not want to leave the impression that Tony was just about work. Au contraire, few people enjoyed themselves more than Tony Sarkis did. To him, one worked hard and then one enjoyed oneself to the maximum.  No-one, however dull, was ever in Tony’s company who did not understand three simple words: A GOOD TIME. He enjoyed and loved life. He never nursed animosity to, or hatred for, anyone. He may shout but he would more easily forgive, seek forgiveness, and forget.
Tony was generous in every way possible; he was generous with his money, with his time, with his love. He was a warm and benevolent human being. He was not just a man of words but a man of action. Tony was a passionate man who loved strongly and committed himself completely whenever he decided to act. He displayed one characteristic that is sorely lacking in many of us sinners: Tony was loyal to a fault. Tony did not live in the area of expediency; he lived in the heart of loyalty.
To illustrate how generous is the man who now lies prostrate before us, I go back to 1974, or 37 years ago. When an earthquake struck Antigua in October 1974, Tony travelled to the place of his wife’s birth to make sure that his family and the people of Antigua were all right. He came bearing gifts.
In September 1995, when Hurricane Luis struck Antigua with devastating fury, Tony chartered three aircraft, stacked with hurricane supplies, relief items, canned food, gasoline-powered chainsaws, cases of water, sheets of tarpaulin, and love in his heart to bring relief to the thousands made homeless by that hurricane. Generosity drove him.
No Carnival in Antigua, beginning in the 1960s, missed Tony Sarkis. The revelry and pageantry of Carnival elicited joy and happiness in him; he was addicted to Antigua’s Summer Festival. Tony would attend the Lion’s Club where dancing all night was the norm. He loved his brother-in-law, Patrick Michael, and cavorted with him on his truck on J’ouvert morning. He loved the arts, the culture, the street party, the Carnival. He brought costume makers from Antigua to Guadeloupe to teach costume-making. Guadeloupe first witnessed a standard of such high quality in Carnival costumes, in 1980, when his sponsored contestants won The Miss Guadeloupe Title and The Band of the Year Trophy. He sponsored troupes and groups each year.
He brought The Wadadli Experience to Guadeloupe to record their work; they were a band made-up of Rastafarians. They did their recording at  Henri Debs Studio, owned by his brother-in-law, his sister’s husband. He was always doing good, always putting his wealth to use making others more fulfilled.
No Old Year’s Night, New Year’s Eve, would ever miss him in Antigua. He and Shirley were the best-dressed couple at the year’s end parties.
A NEW ANTHONY SARKIS FROM TRAGEDY
On March 11, 1995, Anthony Sarkis suffered a tragedy that altered his life. His only son, Jean “Jeano”, born August 11, 1978, and 16 years old, died. Tony was never the same again. Shortly thereafter, Tony and Shirley, together since 1973, parted. They went their separate ways. Tony then began a new family. On June 4, 1997, Anthony Sarkis was born to Tony Sarkis and Petulla Bade. The young Anthony is today 14 years old.
No-one would claim that my Uncle, my second father, awaiting entry into the Gates of Heaven, was not without his warts and blemishes, his faults and weaknesses. He was human. Like King David of the Old Testament, he had his vices and they were his downfall. The same stubbornness and determination which he displayed in pursuit of good, would cling to him when faced with temptations of varied sort. We all wish that our efforts to change those weaknesses in his character had succeeded.
He loved life, and lived it to its fullest. He did not adore material possessions, but he found alluring the beautiful princesses, the automobiles, the fancy restaurants with delicious foods. He loved his family and friends. These groups of specially chosen people could depend upon him for advice and counsel. He would fight to the bitter end to defend his friends.
His friends found him sincere and so they loved him in return. Tony’s list of friends grew and grew; only death separated him from his coterie of friends who came from all walks of life. Tony’s friends were bankers, truck drivers, judges, clerks, lawyers, auctioneers, notaries public, politicians; he befriended folks from every strata of society. The Mayor of Pointe-a-Pitre was his friend. Madame Michaux Chevry was his friend. Jean-Claude Riccot was his friend. Doctor Jacques Gillot and Mr. Lurel were his friends. The Prefect of Guadeloupe was his friend. Yet, Tony was most comfortable around those who owned very little. He walked with kings but never lost the common touch. He was no aristocrat.
ANTHONY SARKIS’ TRIALS
Growing-up in the shadow of his father was a difficult burden to bear. The dominant figure in his life exercised influence and power without even trying. Jean Sarkis was an extremely successful businessman and entrepreneur. He commanded great respect in the community. At times, many would compare Tony with his father. He would have to insist that he was his own man with his own strengths and weaknesses. That psychological burden was ever constant.
When Jean Sarkis died in 1985, Tony inherited the role of Patriarch of the Sarkis Clan. It was very hard trying to fill those huge shoes bequeathed to Tony. People compared him continuously with his father. Yet, he never became his father.
He loved to build and to repair, friendships as well as buildings. He repaired his grandfather’s house in Bazoun, Lebanon, because felt it his duty and wanted so much to make that possible. He repaired his father’s country home at Morne Bourg, in Petitit Bourg. Tony renovated the house at Gosier when he took Shirley for a bride. And his greatest pride came when he assisted his brother to reconstruct the Flagship store at Rue Nozieres. He is most proud of that building.
Tony loved to entertain and he loved food. Tony would invite his friends over for dinner every week when they would play cards, for he loved bellot and poker, and they exchanged jokes. He would always find the best food in the best restaurants. He may have developed that taste by accompanying his father to Paris each year to the Furniture Exhibition Show; and, was also in their company when his Father and Mother went to Lyons and Switzerland, for the same purpose.
In August 2010, Tony was diagnosed with colon cancer by Dr. Joey John. He underwent surgery in Antigua that was deemed successful. While receiving his chemotherapy in Guadeloupe, he would have his friends come to his home where he would entertain until exhausted; he would take a rest and return when re-invigorated. Tony possessed that strong will and determination that caused him to conclude that he would become “a cancer survivor”.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Tony told me that he was a fighter all his life and that he was planning to live. Sadly, one month ago, he became very ill as a result of an infection. When he returned to Dr. Joey John’s Clinic, he was told that the cancer had spread and that it was terminal. He did not have a very long time left to live.
In my short life, I have come to know thousands of men and women who are afraid of death. They conveyed that fear by words or actions. TONY SARKIS did not fear dying. He was courageous all his life. That fearlessness which he exhibited as the end of life drew near was a character trait that marked his 23,748 days on this good earth.
TONY SARKIS knew that the end was near. The signal was the extreme pain which the cancer caused him to bear. He did not wish to fight anymore. He gave up. He made his peace with his Lord, his children, his family and friends. He then demanded of Dr. Joey John, his cousin, friend and doctor who took extremely good care of him and did everything possible to make him comfortable to the very end, that he be permitted to be in his own bed, and his own home where he wanted to be. His only wish was that he spend his last days on this earth with his children and friends.
He loved his companion, Zunilda “Sonie” Corcino. She lived with him at his home in Gosier to the end, and was extremely loving and caring towards him especially during his illness.
CONCLUSION
From the days of his early youth, TONY SARKIS’ affability, his easy charm and his remarkable intelligence made him a popular student. He was at one with the humblest fellow-student. Outgoing, all inclusive, befriending high and low alike, TONY SARKIS was destined to be among the special sons of Guadeloupe.
To his family, his children, his sisters and brother, with whom he shared an eternal bond; to his host of friends, I extend and share the profound sympathy and grief that grip those who knew him.
But this extraordinary, fun-loving, generous, optimistic and loving man, ANTHONY SARKIS, would have said to us if he could speak in this moment of grief:
Death must not find us thinking that we die
Because all of man is heart, is hope
All of man can fly like a bird.
Rise up and soar in fulfilling fulfillment.

And, he would remind us that in this final sleep:
He did not sleep to dream
But dreamed to change the world.
And so, we must take his death as a sign and symbol that we do not know the hour of our final parting. It may be sudden. It may be long. It may be now, it may be later. But whatever and whenever, we must know that those who would sum up our lives must confidently say, that we worked by the sweat of our brow and with the brow of our brain to change the world. That for sure, and in sum, was true of Anthony Sarkis as it is true of all truly remarkable men and women.
In the words of the great Lebanese Prophet, Poet and Philosopher, Khalil Gibran:
But let hearts sing with me the song of Eternal Life;
Mourn not with apparel of black,
But dress in colour and rejoice with me;
Talk not of my departure with sighs in your heart;
Close your eyes and you will see me with you forevermore,
Go back to the joy of your dwellings and you will find there
That which death cannot remove from you and me.
Leave this place, for what you see here is far away in meaning

From the earthly world. Leave me.
For what it is to die, but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun
And what it is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God,
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountaintop then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your wings, then shall you truly dance.
Dance Tony, my dear Uncle Tony, dance on!
May his Soul Rest In Peace.