By Bennette Roach
Jackie Ryan
On Sunday, March 16, 2014, Franklyn A Hixon, much better known as ‘Jackie Fyah’ was found under the rubble of his collapsed house, gasping and calling for help. He subsequently died the same day, soon after, as his cries for help, passed on to the police met slow, deliberate or otherwise retarded response.
Following an autopsy which confirmed him a ‘healthy man’, and an inquiry, still ongoing, Jackie was finally laid to rest on into April 2, at the Salem public cemetery after a funeral service, at the New Carmel Seventh Day Adventist Church, Friths. The church was overcrowded with people, but not surprising when Jackie was eulogized in several of the tributes, made in his honour.
His partner and former girlfriend included, these left a difficulty for me who delivered th
e formal eulogy which consisted with much of his five children’s knowledge and memory of him.
Former Minister of Government John Wilson in his tribute recalled the lesson he learned about humility as he recalled that attribute in Fyah, one which would have surprised many who might have remembered him in his youthful days.
In the eulogy I said: “…the tributes, which when summed up, they describe the person (my nephew) who lived as I am speaking about…”
“He was earthly in his actions. Love things of nature. He fancied doing special deeds with natural gifts. He was an artisan of sorts. He tried to build and create and promote such,” one person wrote of him.
He will indeed be remembered as he died in a structure of stone which crumbled on him and had the authorities scrambling from accusations that while his structure was being hailed as a tourist attraction, the authorities did not certify that it was worthy for habitation.
H
is second child, Sherasmust is a young lawyer in the Attorney General’s Chambers. It would not be surprising to hear that among many other things the children said, “He raised us to be strong minded… someone very positive and optimistic, and who motivated me to always strive for excellence. The words, ‘cannot’ or ‘maybe’, “I don’t know”, and any word that cast doubt or negativity was not part of his vocabulary.”
The Honourable Donaldson Romeo, MLA and opposition leader, like myself had spoken with Jackie in the very early hours of the day he died, where he was busy in the audience at the African Music Feste on the March 15th night.
Romeo in his tribute said, “…he was in good spirits and clearly overjoyed to have spent an evening in the atmosphere of real and genuine African music…if that African Festival came to Montserrat to entertain just one man, that man would have to be Jackie.”
He was a man of diverse talent, with his passion as an artisan, in stone sculpting and calypso. The latter the reason that a few of the leading calypsonians delivered in song a tribute slightly rewording one of his calypsos to suit, “Reserve a seat for me”, while I remembered the calypsos he sang on ‘Diabetes’ and ‘Me done wid dat’.
“Jackie was not only a Calysonian,” the parliamentarian Romeo said, “but had just begun to establish himself as a brilliant and budding sculptor,” that talent that took him to China a few years ago, where he participated in a sculpting extravaganza, themed by the Chinese, “Sculpture Symposium is Ties of Friendship and Bridges of Communication”
Everyone remembered him as a ‘spiritual’ man and described, “He didn’t like injustice and would fight it. When he rose to heights in the calypso arena, this was evident in his songs.”
Romeo quoted his mother who always spoke about Jackie’s fatherhood: “My mother described him as a great father who, like a hen with its chickens, always guarded and kept his children near him everywhere he went as a single parent.” About his will she said: “When he was shot in his leg many many years ago, he never gave up. He made sure to exercise continually to save his leg,” and I can vouch that many of the times I caught up with Jackie, just as Rome noted, “he was already walking somewhere.”
The man Fya
h, the name which resonates from his calypso pursuits will be long remembered, not for 
the physical scars he carried in his limping gait, but for a man who sought peace, reconciliation, love, justice and fair play.
His memory is expected to live on according to Hon. Romeo who says that he will set up an exhibition in his honour. “I will…use and share my gift of a charcoal portrait which I recently did of Jackie, as a tribute that allows us all to both contribute in a tangible way to the wellbeing of his young children and also to start the ‘Jackie Fyah Fine Art and Craft Exhibition’; an exhibition that will allow us to pay tribute every St. Patricks Day weekend to the life, work and purpose of one Jackie Fyah.
AS he ended his tribute, he explained: “Cards and prints will be made available at various locations on Island and on Internet someday soon. A percentage of funds raised, to be determined by guardians and the family, will be donated to the children while an agreed percentage will go towards the annual St. Patrick’s Jackie Fyah Fine Art and craft exhibition…With God’s help and yours the Jackie Fyah Fine Art and Craft exhibition will allow us to pay tribute every St. Patrick’s weekend to the life, work and purpose of one Jackie FYAH.
