Surgeon delivers poignant tribute to friend of almost six decades

Happy memories and sad moments sprinkled with a bit of humour. This is a fitting description of the tribute delivered by the friend of the late Garth Saunders, Dr Carl Ollivierre at the funeral service on Tuesday, May 23.

Ollivierre poignantly wavered between tears and laughter as he recounted the great and not-so-great events that coloured the almost six decades of friendship between the two.

“He was way more than my best friend. He was a giant, a huge big teddy bear of a giant who brought unwavering love and support. His departure is going to leave an unfillable void. It will never ever ever be replaced.”

Ollivierre painted the timeline of their friendship from boyhood at the Kingstown Preparatory School, to the adolescent years at the St Vincent Grammar School to the years at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, describing his “buddy” as the peacemaker of the group.

“He brought his cool, calm demeanour to the middle years and the Grammar School, to the bad boys of the day. I will tell you today I have never heard Garth Saunders cuss. And that bothered me,” Ollivierre told attendees at the Kingstown Methodist Church who erupted in laughter.

The orthopaedic surgeon revealed to family and friends at the service how he concocted a plan to persuade athletic officials at the university to recruit Saunders, upselling him to recruiters as a “six foot six” brainiac who was as “strong as an ox” and “could bench press a house”. The plan worked and Saunders was admitted to the school, leading to a cure in Ollivierre’s homesickness.

“Sight unseen. Garth was signed, full five-year scholarship in Engineering. He delivered athletically and he delivered academically. He made us proud.”

Ollivierre also spoke frankly and honestly about a period at university when he was at an emotional low and how Saunders acted as his saviour and lifeline.

“We had some great, great times in Puerto Rico – 99 per cent of them were awesome. But there were a couple dark moments. We lived in a dorm on the 10th floor and I tell you today, In the moment of dark, unspeakable moments, Garth Saunders was the one who talked me off of the ledge and I don’t mean that figuratively.”

He credited Saunders as the driving force who propelled him to complete his university studies following the death of his father.

“He was at my side every step of the way 43 years ago when my father was murdered and buried across the street at the Anglican church. He, along with my brothers and sisters, physically dragged me back on LIAT to go back to finish college because I was done!”

In closing out his tribute, Ollivierre recounted his last moments with Saunders and their plans to travel and enjoy retirement, following the end of his 18-year tenure as the longest-serving Chief Executive Officer of the Central Water and Sewage Authority (CWSA).

But the warrior Saunders was, Ollivierre said “sometimes he was too much of a warrior. You see, we didn’t always agree on strategy towards the end.”

“ …Garth would research topics, he would do his deep research and come up with his own plan of treatment sometimes, then he would run it by us sometimes and say this is what I am going to do.”

He said he, Saunders’s sister Michele and other members of the family had to remind Garth that “a degree in engineering and a masters in business and the fact that I snuck him into the operating room a few times to see surgery …those things did not qualify him as a medical doctor.”

“Two and a half weeks ago I came home… I didn’t like what I saw. Garth had painted a much rosier, prettier picture about his health … than was reality.

I begged him, let’s get some other opinions. I scheduled some appointments for him. You know what Garth told me? … Garth said ‘I would do them, but Carl, I don’t want to offend anybody’. Garth told me he did not want to go and seek additional opinions because he did not want to offend anybody!

“…However, he solemnly promised me … that he was going to double his efforts to get better and he was going to do his therapy and exercises, because we had a plan, we were going to go to the Paris Olympics next year as a family. We were going to celebrate retirement in the truest level….”

Ollivierre said he would later disclose to his family his concerns about the imminent end to their friendship.

“I went home that night and I cried. I cried hard. I spoke to my Mum and my [siblings] and I said ‘I’m not sure I will be seeing Garth again’.”

He thanked Saunders for being a “towering strength” in the lives of his friends and family, adding “the road ahead is going to be rocky” without Saunders’ presence.

Saunders died at his home in Cane Garden on May 14 at the age of 63.