There are many moments in a day when I refer to long-time friends of the family as ‘uncle’.
Even though many of these so called ‘uncles’ are not related through blood lines, the term is often used more out of respect in the South Asian culture.
A month ago, our family lost one of our dearest. Uncle Moe Herar, who was my father’s younger brother. He was someone who was very close to us throughout our entire lives and suddenly passed away a few weeks ago while on a vacation trip to India, which took the entire family by surprise.
He was an outstanding tennis and badminton player and referred by many as ” Mighty Moe” for his competitiveness and skills. He actually registered me in my first tennis camp in the late 70’s in Kamloops and it’s something that still stands vividly clear in my mind. During the last three years, he always made an effort to visit our Cycling4Diversity team, while we visited schools, each May.
During our ride last year, he left two notes at the hotel reception desk where are team was staying. I decided not to throw them away because they were so beautifully written and last Christmas I had the opportunity to share them with him. He was pleasantly surprised to see them, again. It may be a small piece of paper with a few lines written on it, but it’s the thought and effort that stands out the most. This is who our uncle was, always there to support his family and friends at unexpected moments. I will treasure these two pieces of paper and the many beautiful moments that life gave us together.
We’re heartbroken forever, and in his memory, I am looking forward to wearing his Cycling4Diversity shirt, which he so proudly wore.
Every family should have an Uncle Moe and where so grateful, we did.
The two things that are almost certain in life as I like to refer them are the two D’s (Diversity & Death). When you come into this world, one thing is certain, you’ll meet many people from various cultures and backgrounds.
Another thing, we cannot escape is death. Unfortunately, no one gets out of this world alive. So, what can we take from these two D’s is let’s not waste valuable time hating each other and learn more to love one another.
Where just around the corner, from ‘Cycling4Diversity Week’, between May 18th -24th, in our province. The C4D team will be riding from Mission to Mission. I know it sounds a bit strange, but where looping around the Lower Mainland, visiting 15 cites and speaking at 20 schools. The message on this year’s journey again is to encourage students, organizations and seniors on finding ways to improve our intercultural communication. During, C4D Week the team asks people to try to find ways of being more inclusive in our sport teams, neighborhoods and work places. C4D started in 2011, to conquer the growing ‘cultural divide’ and progress is being made.
As founder, I would like to especially thank Executive Director Terry Stobbart and Anne-Marie Sjoden for their efforts. Stobbart said: ” I am pleased to be a part of a growing foundation that will be reaching out further than before. Our foundation is taking on new challenges in reaching out to our communities through the school districts and we are hoping to enter the workplace this year talking about diversity and creating the very dialogue that this foundation wishes to foster all over. During our annual ride in May, we celebrate World Cultural Day, as part of our message to young people about being diverse, unique and the importance of being friends.”
Ken “Kulwinder” Herar is a Mission-based writer and a winner of the champions of diversity award for his columns in the LINK newspaper and other Fraser Valley newspapers. Herar can be reached at [email protected] or view his blog at http://www.kenherar.blogspot.com
