Sometimes, friendship creeps up on you. Patrick (or Amega as I called him), truly did. We became school and year mates when I went to Achimota School in 1982 as a sixth-former. Many, many years later, when I needed to buy my first desk-top computer, it was Amega that I approached, as he had by then started Accu-Computers. I also did the odd professional stuff for him; and yet I would still not have called him my friend then.
Then he joined the same Rotary Club to which I belong. There is something called “gutter side” in Rotary, which is the hang-out after meetings. We both did quite a bit of that, and began to spend a lot more time together. Unlike me, Amega’s placid exterior and unhurried manner hid a hugely adventurous soul; ready to try a strange cuisine, a drink, a new bar or a cigar. Then, like a taster, he would get me to try something new that he had sampled and liked. In the last couple of years or so, he would drag me out of home at weekends; and when on occasion I wasn’t up to going out, he would come over to my home and we would sit at the balcony or in front of the television, chat and deal with some serious alcohol and smoke cigars till the wee hours of the morning. I recall fairly recently, his wife, Lynda, asked what at all her husband and I talked about till morning, since he was not much of the talker. But, you see, that was precisely the point. He had truly become my friend.
In the last few years, I came to know Amega as a very social person, an organizer, a salesman, a shrewd businessman and a ruthless bargainer. Paradoxically, he was easy and comfortable company and a sucker for the less privileged. I hugely enjoyed working with him when he took up the presidency of our Rotary club in the last Rotary year, ending June 2020. He left a lasting impact on the club. During his tenure as President, he would, at the slightest excuse, invite us to his home, sometimes, for a morning walk and then all sorts after. As a club, we tend to be a rather riotous bunch, but Lynda was always a fantastic hostess. I was usually the last to leave.
I don’t know about you guys, but I will miss this bugger, for real. We never talked about mortality because we didn’t think it would come so soon and quickly. Maybe we should have. May the Good Lord himself find a quiet resting place for you, Amega, and keep watch over your family.
Fare thee well my friend.