At 2 p.m. on Sunday 2nd February family and friends gathered at the Bellevue Seventh Day Adventist Church to say a final farewell to Colin Anderson Sanderson Haywood.
As a teacher, Cash, as he was known to many far and wide, touched the lives of untold generations in his zealous drive to educate wherever he was assigned.
For the duration of his illustrious career he taught at several schools across the country, particularly on the Windward side. Some of those include the Lowmans Wd. Anglican, North Union Secondary, Byera Primary and the Park Hill Government School. He was still teaching at Park Hill at the time of his death.
A long time friend describes him as the “guy who debated politics and could go on and on about cricket.” Two things one must know he loved once you got to know Cash.
As a cricket fanatic “Brian Laura was his icon,” Glendene Glasgow, a past student who morphed into a lifelong friend, reminisced. “I remember him going to watch one of the games and he made it to the Players’ Pavilion to get a picture with Brian Laura. Then he came back and joked about it saying ‘yo know Brian had to come tek out picture wid me.”
“He had many fans, was the life of the party and was very generous,” another friend remembered.
This generosity and general open heartedness would not preclude him from suffering much of the travails the living must endure.
He survived a gunshot wound to his neck in a gruesome incident at his North Union home. His mate, at the time, was also raped.
Several years later medical issues would cause him to fly to Cuba to undergo heart surgery. From all accounts the surgery was successful as he resumed his most passionate pursuits upon returning home.
His selflessness, it is said, could possibly be measured in the countless hours he set aside for his students. “Kids loved him because he made them laugh and he believed in them. I believe even if he wasn’t offered a salary he would still turn up to school, he had a passion for teaching. Indeed a real teacher,” said the friend while declining to publish her name.
She also shared “they all (his students) wanted to be close to him. And they all wanted to be his favorite when they already were.”
One past student in her Facebook tribute wrote “you were so humble you used your lunch period to give advice to those who flocked around you. Not before sending me to grab you a little snack; probably your favorite back then. I’ll just hear ‘Annisha come go by Lassy Dabreo go buy a piece [of bread] and cheese and an orchard box juice.’ You would give several advice to me or even ask me for some. The last time we spoke you told me of your interest in seeing back the community lighting-up sadly you wouldn’t be around.”
His relationship with his two children should best be described as enigmatic. Loved though they were, his was not the habit to discuss in too much great detail any of his stresses with them.
“He didn’t like to talk much about certain things with me,” his bereaved daughter shared with ANN. She further explained that living in separate households also contributed to their love at arms length styled relationship.
His son, from his home in Antigua, shared some of his grief via Cash’s Facebook wall. “Why did it have to be you? I don’t understand. Just talked to you the other day and now look. Yooo me too hurt bass…You’ll never be there to see me graduate from college, see me get married or even have kids. Lost grandma and now I’ve lost you mayne.
You might not have been the Dad you wanted to be but still… I wanted you to see me grow up to be the young man you envisioned me to be…. But I guess God had other plans. Don’t worry mon. I’ll never give up. I’ll keep working and grinding till I make it.
Rest in Paradise Dad,” he wrote.
Senator Isreal Bruce, in his first address to the House of Parliament this year, revealed that both Colin Haywood and himself taught together at one point of their careers. “… He was seen, treated and respected as an outstanding Social Studies teacher. He, too, veered off and did some theatre particularly at North Union Secondary where he wrote a number of plays for the National Secondary Schools Drama Festival for quite a few years. And he was also Director of the School’s drama club for some time,” Bruce said.
Colin Cash Haywood, known also as Mr. Wonderful, died on Wednesday 15th January 2020. He was living in Park Hill.