When the Game is Over, We shall all Go Home

The Great playwright, William Shakespeare likened the world to a stage and the men and
women therein as actors and actresses who appear on the stage to perform their rolls and are
seen no more.

I came to know Mr. Anthony Kwame de Youngster during the second private school week
celebration which was launched in Accra on 27th February 1990, where he was the local
organizing chairman of the programme.

My first impression of him was “Ah this man looks too serious, business like and
unapproachable giving his dedication to duty and his bourgeois appearance”.

Oh! How wrong I was, upon an encounter with him on the day as the then Deputy General
Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools, I was schooled to learn from
him that, the best policy in life is to put the human being first in all your endeavours giving
the fact that we live because of others.

He made me know that anything seen with the eyes cannot be taken with us in death so the
“principle of humility, making others our focal point in service should be our priority”.
This drew me so close to Mr. Anthony de Youngster who I proudly called “ St. Anthony”.

Upon getting closer I got to know that he had over 20 individuals of very poor background
(not related to him) on his payroll that he paid at the end of every month.
At a point when my school in Kumasi run into partnership crisis it was this mentor, who
helped me raised my head “above waters”.

In fact “St Anthony” as I called him had become a father figure to me, and I am not ashamed
to say I have survived with my family upon his charitable work which he said was the
purpose of his life on Earth.

It is intriguing to note that about four months to his demise he called me on the line and told
me that his Doctors in the US gave him five years giving the state of his health at the time but
he had survived for over ten years but lately he was seeing signs of the end and that he was
ready to meet his maker in about two weeks, to which I said he should not be dispirited but
his reply was that “I have Fought a good fight and am not afraid to meet my maker‟‟.

I am with the hope therefore that as he said, he is now in the bossom of his maker.
However we have lost a great philanthropist and a mentor who we loved so dearly.

I know he has fought a good fight and has paid his dues so to him I say, „May mother earth
lay gently upon your remains as you rest peacefully in the bossom of your maker‟‟.

Fare thee well “St. Anthony”. Fare thee well.