EVERYDAY LAW: My memories of David

My first memory of David Thompson was that of a lanky schoolboy who seemed even as a young boy to be too tall to be wearing short pants.
We both attended the Combermere School, and it was when I became president of the Literary and Debating Society that I particularly noticed his presence. He spent a lot of time in the library and it was there that we held our meetings, debates and discussions.
David would soon begin to attend those sessions.
I would later learn that he would often say to others jokingly, that I was responsible for his joining the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), since, according to him, I would always invite a lot of DLP politicians to address the society.
I do not recall his ever telling me this himself.
I left Combermere in 1976, and my next significant memory of David was his stellar performance in the discussion on the Senate with the late Senator Hutson Linton on the CBC programme Understanding.
In that programme I remember well the affable senator feeling the full weight of David’s precocious intellect, and debating skills, as he brilliantly argued the case for the abolition of the Senate.
After that performance the popularity of the programme grew, and for many like myself, it was required viewing.
Though we both studied law at Cave Hill and later the Hugh Wooding Law School, our paths never crossed since he entered Cave Hill as I was leaving, and the Hugh Wooding Law School, a year after I had left.
During the period of late 1980s and later from about 1995 onwards, I would, from time to time, come into contact with David in his capacity as a lawyer in private practice.  On occasions we would also meet at gatherings, mainly of old Combermerians.
In both situations David was gentle, courteous and unpretentious. 
I often felt in my exchanges with him that despite his ascent to lofty political heights he never forgot that at school I was his deputy headboy and president of the Debating Society. 
He often appeared to show me the deference that students continue to pay to their teachers long after they have left school.
In a profession in which you, from time to time, are confronted with the hubris       of persons far less gifted than he was, his approach to the practice of the law was a breath of fresh air. Communication with him was easy, since more often than not, he adopted the position of a conciliator rather than an antagonist.
David would later write a column for THE NATION newspaper and my wife was his editor.  She would speak to him on a weekly basis and she would tell me that he would begin or end every conversation by asking how Cecil was doing.  Likewise, when we spoke he would also ask me for her and our daughters.
His often expressed interest in family was not staged. He felt that stable families were at the heart of social stability.
A few weeks after he became Prime Minister in 2008, I was in my office working after hours when David telephoned me and told me that he would like me to serve on the Board of the Central Bank.
I agreed without hesitation, thanked him and asked him how things were going. He concluded our brief conversation by thanking me for agreeing to serve.
But it was not my appointment to the Central Bank Board that was my most enduring memory of Prime Minister Thompson. Nor was it the occasion of Ridley Greene’s birthday when I chatted with David about family life, which he rated as his most difficult challenge.
My most lasting memory occurred when he was not in my presence.
It was listening to him while driving my car, when he took the bold step of addressing journalists in Guyana on Barbados’ new immigration policy.
It was a courageous and brilliant presentation. 
I was riveted to my seat and never left the car until the end of the speech and the subsequent question and answer. Both were expertly handled by Prime Minister Thompson.
I was similarly impressed by his courage and overwhelming sense of duty when he introduced the resolution in the House of Assembly on the loan from Deutsche Bank on June 4, 2010 even though he was clearly feeling and showing effects of his debilitating illness.
As I reflect on that presentation I have formed the view that he wanted to publicly thank those many persons who had offered prayers and well wishes to him and also send a signal of stability to the country.
In the early hours of October 23, 2010 Barbados lost a truly outstanding man – a man who lived his life for his country, a man whose life personified courage, service and selflessness to the end.
On the personal level it is clear that David touched the lives of many.  I too feel a deep sense of personal loss. 
On behalf of my wife Charmaine, my daughters and other relatives, I extend deepest sympathy to his widow Mara, his lovely daughters and his other relatives. May he rest in peace.