Ashley Caine: Larry was larger than life

Ashley Cain, a lifelong friend and “brother” of the late Larry Bascombe, has described him as “Larger than life and the best Christian I have ever known.”

Ironic, it may seem, as Larry rarely made pronouncements and testimonies of his faith.{{more}}

“I understand how one can be angry with God,” Cain submitted.

Cain drew Biblical reference to the story of Jonah and Nineveh and paralleled it to Larry’s predicament. “Persons react in two ways to hardships and tribulations. They go to God meekly in submission or question, why me?” Cain added.

Cain said that he thought that Larry chose the latter.

“He read and studied his Bible, but could not reconcile (what he read) with his sufferings,” Cain added.

Cain thought that Larry had become sorry for himself and resigned at one point to dwell in sub-human conditions, where rats and bats were his companions.

Cain said that following Larry’s unfortunate accident in 1977, when as an auto mechanic, a truck fell on him and he became paralysed from the waist down, he went to Trinidad for a couple of years, before returning to the land of his birth.

Cain admitted that for sometime, while Larry resided in the twin island republic, he lost touch with the man with whom he shared the same classrooms at the Richland Park Government School.

“The process though was restarted around 1998, when we reconnected through the Marriaqua Sports Association, as he was President and I was Treasurer,” Cain recollected.

“The process of carrying him to and from football meetings in my vehicle and having to lift him and his wheel chair up the stairs of the Football Federation’s Office brought us closer,” Cain, the current Third Vice President of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation said.

“Larry was closer to me than my brothers and my immediately family,” he confirmed.

“His love for country, his love for people, has been matched by few Vincentians for the past thirty years,” Cain opined.

“A Vincentian patriot, nationalist and fine example of that which is most noble in the human spirit – the ability to journey through the desperate trials of human person and spirit, to stand as a man to be saluted for the quality of life,” Cain testified of Larry.

“St. Vincent and the Grenadines has lost a serious gunman; who shot straight and direct from the hip, and spoke the truth as he saw it, without fear, favour or compromise,” Cain stated.

“He never backed away from his conviction and caused many to wince at his biting commentary and criticism,” said Cain of his “partner in crime”.

“He will listen to you,
but he had his opinion and
he respected yours, but he
did what he thought had
to be done,” Cain, a long standing Treasurer of the MSA said.

Cain, recalling Larry’s last days alive, said: “That indomitable spirit to have his own way with doctors, nurses, relatives and close friends; when discomfort of a tube, passing through his nostrils into his stomach to aid in the removal of toxic wastes, became too great… on three occasions, he pulled it out,” Cain revealed.

“As I reflect on the latest struggles of my childhood friend, fiercest critic, confidante, a self confessed atheist for years, I am taken back to the story of Luke 5: 18-20, where a group of friends heard of Jesus and his power to heal the sick and restore brokenness of body and spirit. They would not let any obstacle keep them from giving their friend a chance to meet Jesus for healing. They took the man, bed and all, down through the house roof, into the room where Jesus was. The rest is history,” Cain said, in a philosophical manner.

As they lived, grew up, sharing many things together, Cain is thrilled that he will be afforded the opportunity to eulogise on his friend and brother this Sunday at his funeral service at the Mesopotamia Gospel Hall. (RT)