John Jay Cunningham, Jnr.

Prem's Tribute at the Memorial, May 2

TRIBUTE Offered by Prem Chadeesingh Family and Friends of John Jay Cunningham, Jr. One day in September 1970, when I was a second-year student at the University of Toronto, I answered an unexpected knock on my dormitory bedroom door. Venturing into the corridor, the Dean of residence introduced me to Aunt Berthlyn, who said: “I asked the Dean of residence if there were any Jamaicans here, and he told me only one. So I want you to meet John Jay.” John Jay was leaning against the corridor wall with both his hands behind his back, shifting his weight from one leg to the other, looking very shy and suitably embarrassed by his aunt trying to ensure he would be in safe hands. And so began a friendship that turned out to be one of the greatest privileges gifted to me. I called my new friend JJ. Now, Canadian engineering students had a well-deserved reputation for being wild and crazy guys who did their work but spent most of their time partying. I took on the task of initiating JJ into this world. If Aunt Berthlyn knew what taking JJ under my wing meant, she may have had second thoughts about these two Jamaicans meeting! Without realizing it, I slipped into the role of JJ’s big brother, dedicated to making the shy country boy a man. But JJ was very very different from me and anyone else I had ever met; and I soon realized that I had just as much to learn from him if not more. “Thinking out of the box” is a well-worn cliché now. But JJ was thinking out of the box when I first met him thirty-nine years ago. Go to JJ with a problem and he would show you a completely new way to look at it. After missing too many lectures because he slept through the alarm clock, JJ devised the following plan: ·First, he programmed a timer to switch on his coffee percolator. ·Second, when the coffee was just about ready, the alarm clock would go off. ·Thirdly, another timer would switch on a spotlight aimed at his face. Upon completing my degree in 1973, I decided to do something daring and adventurous before returning to Jamaica- to take a six-week camping trip through Scandinavia and the Former Soviet Union. When JJ decided to join me, I thought “Great!” I now had a friend to share my two-man tent, even if, like me, he had never camped before. This was the road trip that bound us together as brothers for the rest of time. There are so many memories from that trip, so many new and exciting experiences we shared. About twenty-six years ago, when I went to England to get married, JJ came with me for a weeklong bachelor party, another road trip, this time through Devon and Cornwall. We argued a lot on that trip because I, in my big brother role, was trying to convince him of my point of view on something important to him. We argued, but we did not fall out with each other. We never did. JJ loved a good argument! We explored every topic under the Sun. We engaged in silly predictions, like bravely determining in 1981 that the Jamaican dollar would stabilize if left to market forces at ten to one US dollar. We discussed politics, economics, even religion. JJ told me that he believed in all religions. I told him not to be daft as different religions have contradictory beliefs. He replied: “Yes, but they also have lots in common.” I was the best man at JJ’s wedding, and I was there to share in the joy when he first dipped his little baby, Nick, in the sea at Runaway Bay. JJ and I shared many interests. We both embraced photography with a passion. I was always impressed by the fact that JJ and I would look at the same object or scene, but he would find a more interesting way to interpret it. While I was trying to teach JJ to party, he was teaching me too think more creatively. I admired JJ’s intellect. When my children ask me a question, any question on any topic, if I don’t know the answer, I tell them to email Uncle JJ. “He’ll give you the answer,” and as he once said, if he didn’t know the answer, he’d make it up, meaning he would work it out. JJ really admired smart and industrious people. Once while staying with him at the family’s home in Runaway Bay, early one morning, hanging out on the verandah, a young man came to the gate to sell a bag of limes. JJ tried to send him away saying he had his own tree full of limes out back, but the vendor was persistent and JJ found it difficult to tell anyone no. Admiring his selling skills, JJ gave in and purchased the limes. As the vendor hurried away, JJ suddenly stopped, looked puzzled and dashed to the back of the house. A minute later he returned to tell me that there were no limes left on his tree. He had just bought his limes, stolen from his tree. JJ grinned and congratulated the thief on his ingenuity and boldness. JJ’s kindness, good humor and joviality endeared him to many. Quite a few of the employees from my company at Silver Sands are here today as JJ visited us so often, they got to know, respect and love him too. In fact, he was often a Special Guest at our Annual Staff parties, and he would never hesitate to give a motivational talk, making many jokes and seizing every opportunity to embarrass me by revealing secrets from my youth to my staff. I am now rambling and I don’t know what I am trying to say. I am not trying to say that JJ was a perfect man and a perfect friend. What I will say is that as I grew to know him, I embraced all his imperfections as he did mine. There was no tension in our relationship. When I did well, JJ congratulated me and encouraged me to do even better. When I struggled, he unselfishly did anything he could to help. JJ helped me learn that a good friend gives without asking for anything in return; he gives without even letting you know that he was the one who helped. JJ sharpened my intellect, and motivated me to try to be smarter, so I could keep up with him. JJ, I love you and am so sorry that you are not here, but the light you brought to my life will burn brightly forever. "Truth is God." M. K. Gandhi