‘Thank you for being a true friend to me’

Receiving a call from an insurance advisor in the midst of an important engagement would certainly irk anyone. One may allow that call to go unattended or reject it, thus sending the message to the caller.

But at mid-afternoon on June 7, 2019, while I was still focusing on the meeting that I chaired, I received a call from my insurance advisor and good friend, Winston Jawahar De Souza on my phone. I attended the call to let him know I would call later, once I was free.

However, the voice of the caller at the other end was very unfamiliar and hence I continued the call, while still trying to gasp the discussion around the boardroom. My friend Winston’s sister, Elza who I had never met nor spoken to anytime earlier had called up to let me know that my friend was no more. More than making my senses numb, I regretted having missed meeting Winston last month, when he was in Panjim and had called to say that he was in town. Whenever he was in Panjim, Winston would let me know about his presence and would ask if we could meet for a few minutes. 

A firm believer of ‘time is precious’ philosophy, he was always armed with paper sheets containing statements of insurance policies, mutual funds, reminders of premium payment etc. to deliver to his clients personally.  

I seldom came across someone like Winston who was so dedicated and passionate about the work that he did. 

It was by chance that I met Winston-a jovial person from Velsao, for the first time in 2003 at the Verna Police Station, where I was one of the Sub Inspector. Having approached me for assistance at the Police station, he introduced himself as an insurance advisor and finance consultant. He was honest enough to admit that though he did not have any formal qualifications in the field that he pursued, he assured to offer professional services with a personal touch and that he was learning the field and requested for support to allow him to grow in the field that he chose to pursue. This honest approach was more than sufficient to establish a mutual trust between us.  

A genuine person of simple nature with a high degree of persistence, Winston was full of warmth with his humility worth treasuring. He was a rare find and a good friend to me.

Although physically restricted due to injuries that he sustained in a serious motor vehicular accident, Winston never failed to make his trips to Panjim by bus to provide the service to his clients- a promise that he kept till his end.

In 2008, I purchased an endowment policy through Winston as he was very optimistic of the performance of the fund that he advised me to buy. On one of my visits to the insurance office to review and discard some of the non performing funds/policies, I was stuck in disbelief when I learnt that the fund/policy that was recommended and sold by Winston was performing above expectations with a large amount of bonus having already accrued in that plan. Well, Winston could not hide the sparkle in his eyes when I told him about the fund’s performance in one of our meeting. He was actually happy for me as I gave him an opportunity and he had not failed me- a very rare expression I could ever notice. 

After working some years some years in South Goa, my assignments in North Goa confined me to the capital city for almost about 10 years and all throughout, my friend Winston would call me whenever he was in town, just to say “Hi” and to enquire about the well-being of my family members- a genuine and sincere soul who valued relationships more than anything else.

Winston, who maintained a strict professional relationship at the beginning, however felt more comfortable and began sharing with me a few concerns about his own personal life and that of his family members. He trudged along a great deal of worries and situations which he had to handle, but he smilingly endured each of them, never to show what and how much he went through all the time. The recent loss of his younger sister and his priest brother in quick succession was not only a personal tragedy to him, but a double whammy to his already wounded soul that completely wrecked him emotionally. Yet he held on to himself, gracefully going about with his routine, just the same way he went around every day. Having endured a series of personal tragedies, he still continued looking at life positively and went about living it to the best of his potential.

When Winston’s elder sister called me to let me know that Winston passed away, she mentioned that he was hospitalised in Kochi some days back and died due to the brief illness. She emphasised that more than informing about Winston’s death, she called up to thank me “for being a friend to her brother” as he would talk to her about me, while he was confined to the hospital bed. She mentioned that while enduring his illness, Winston, on one occasion had called me up from his bed just to enquire with me about my health. A call, I missed and failed to return too. I rue that I missed speaking to Winston that day as I will never be able to speak to him forever.

Elza’s words ‘Thank You for being a friend to my brother’ keep revisiting my mind.  They mean a lot to me. The family members found my contact through his phone book and recollected Winston calling me from the hospital bed to enquire about my health. Enduring his own illness, he still remembered me and called up to enquire about my health. I wish I had attended the call and said to Winston “Thank you for being a true friend to me”