By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 27, 2020 – I am still grief-stricken by the death of my very good friend Rio Williams and, as I noted in an earlier post on Facebook, I was mired in a deep state of depression when I woke up this morning. The defeat of my beloved Washington Redskins by the Cleveland Browns made my depression worse.
Additionally, this being “Football Sunday” really compounded my misery as I reflected on the many Sundays during football season that Rio, myself and a coterie of our friends religiously packed into CHANCES Sports Lounge on Logwood Road in Freeport, Grand Bahama to watch NFL football.
As I generally do every Sunday, I logged into bahamasuncensored.com, the online news medium, and saw the picture I am using with this article that was captioned: “Farewell To Reo Williams, Dashie’s Brother, PLP Stalwart Grand Bahama | 21 September 2020.”
I am blessed to have had both Dashy and Rio as very close and dear friends from our teenage years at Southern Senior in Nassau, but I am particularly forever indebted to Dashy for taking our friendship to another level when I took sick in Freeport in 2012. I had difficulty walking and was told by a specialist at the Rand Memorial Hospital that I needed a hip-replacement operation.
Dashy was at the time a frequent visitor to Miami and he offered to accompany me to Miami for an appointment I had made with a doctor. We rented a car, checked into a hotel and he drove me to my appointment the next day. Because I became Naturalized American Citizen in 1982 when I previously lived in Washington, D.C. for 21 years, I have MEDICARE HEALTH INSURANCE, which covers 80 percent of my medical costs. Unfortunately, the doctor in Miami, for whatever reason, did not accept my Medicare Insurance Card, which was issued in Washington, D.C.
We stayed in Miami for three days and after I returned to Freeport, I decided to go to D.C. to check out the possibility of receiving the operation in D.C. The Miami trip was extremely expensive and the D.C. trip would be even more expensive, but thanks to Raymond R.H. Culmer, CEO of Jarol Investments, Ltd. and CHANCES GAMES, and some of the regulars at CHANCES Sports Lounge, I had a successful hip-replacement operation at George Washington University Hospital in June of 2012.
After the operation, I was required to do several months post-operation therapy, but because I was living in a hotel on my visit to D.C., the doctor who performed my operation agreed for me to complete my therapy in Freeport.
Thanks Dashy for being such a dear friend and please know that I feel your pain and my thoughts are with you at this most sorrowful period in your life.
