Dear Editor,
Long before his death on Boxing Day, Mike Khan – the former CEO of Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, the St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital and the New Amsterdam Hospital – had begun to contemplate the end.
One day, we were crossing the Berbice Bridge. Our conversation was about things far removed from death. Then Mike suddenly asked if I would deliver the eulogy at his funeral. I was momentarily stunned by the abrupt turn in the conversation. I answered in the affirmative.
The Berbice River Bridge seemed to trigger thoughts about his mortality. On another occasion while crossing that thoroughfare, he said to me that he was just waiting on his time to die. He wanted his ashes to be scattered in the Berbice River.
Mike was extremely fond of his hometown New Amsterdam. It is an interesting coincidence that the last book that he lent me – and which I still have in my possession – was Kiskadee Girl by Margaret Harris, a memoir of growing up in New Amsterdam. Mike knew many of the town’s former residents and often travelled with me to spend time there on weekends.
One time when I was trying to locate the mother of the late Colonel Michael Shahoud, it was Mike who directed me to where she once resided in New Amsterdam. They had both lived once in the same street.
New Amsterdam was also Mike’s chosen place for haircuts and shaves. He would make me take him all the way to New Amsterdam just for this purpose. And he never went to the town without taking something for someone he knew.
Generosity came naturally to Mike. He was always giving, always so kind-hearted. There was never a time when he visited me that he did not bring something – a hand of bananas, a squash or pumpkin, mangoes or a parcel of books.
Mike was a bibliophile. He read extensively but he only collected books about Guyana. Mike Khan had one of the best collections of books relating to Guyana. There was hardly a book about the country that he did not own. He loved to have them autographed by the authors, contending that they increased the books’ value.
When Sir Shridath Rampahal was launching, The Commonwealth and the World, Mike gave me a stack of books to be autographed by Sir Shridath. I was nervous standing in line, afraid that the author would not sign them. But Sir Shridath was elated that someone had such a wide assemblage of his books. He signed them all, even asking me where I obtained one of them. Embarrassingly, I could not answer.
I benefited enormously from Mike’s book collection exercises. Mike would constantly shower me with books It was well-known that the late Lloyd Searwar had the best collection of books on international relations. Somehow Mike got his hands on part of this collection and after taking out what he wanted, he gave the rest to me.
Just as Mike treasured rare glimpses of the past, he poured the same devotion into his work, where his commitment to health care left a lasting mark. Mike Khan worked at four hospitals in Guyana. But his heart remained rooted to Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). His work there anchored his life, giving him purpose and structure. When he was sent off from GPHC his health declined: his balance faltered, he walked less briskly and more shakily, he had trouble getting out of a vehicle, and he sometimes drove too close to vehicles and pedestrians.
One evening, as he turned into my gap, the side of his car brushed a woman’s handbag. She rushed to confront him, but when she saw who it was, she said nothing—he must have helped her or someone she knew at some point, as he did for countless persons. Mike went out of his way to help people because for him people were more important than the process.
He desired to return to hospital administration to return to helping people. He told me he was coming back in either January or February and would try to rejoin the public health system. I did not know how to discourage him. He was my friend and I did not wish to hurt his feelings by telling him I believed that ship had sailed.
Now that he has departed from us, I say with the greatest affection that Haspat Jaleel Khan, also known as Michael Khan, was a good man. And I am a better person for having walked alongside him as a friend.
Rest in Peace, Mike!