Reflecting on a father’s love

At about 10:40am last Sunday the daughters of Lucien “Saluche” Small received the call that every child dreads that their father had passed away. Screams filled the air on hearing the unexpected news. Speaking with Searchlight, Sharese who is a student at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Lucia who is enrolled at Temple University in Philadelphia said that they were both supposed to return to their schools this week but now realise why they didn’t.

The two said that they had an uncanny feeling that they needed to stay in the country and believe that it was so that they could spend the final days with their father and see him being laid to rest.{{more}}

The older Sharese said that on arriving at his home after getting the news, she just “wanted to see her daddy” but younger sibling Lucia however couldn’t bear to see her dad. Both said that their father’s death was extremely heart breaking since they knew that he wanted to see them graduate from university and walk them down the aisle at their weddings.

Both young ladies said that they were proud of their father whom they described as a “family man who was a source of happiness to all.” They said besides music their father was spiritual, loved Biblical and Western movies and loved to cook.

Sharese however said that she spoke with Saluche on the phone last Saturday and he didn’t sound well and he had recently told his wife, Helen that “He was ready to meet his maker.” Lucia told Searchlight she now holds dear an evening she spent with her dad and some friends where they talked and cracked jokes for hours.

Lucia said that she took some of the last pictures ever taken of him and upon reflection, she found it very strange that her father was counseling her the way he did but now treasures the advice he gave.

Sharese said that now that she looks back it seems that he knew that he didn’t have long to live and was trying to tell them how much he really loved them. She also said that while he loved his family dearly, he was also close to his extended “Night Rider” radio programme family and he loved performing and interacting with people.