Red heart-shaped balloons popped in the hot afternoon sun on Friday, June 20, in the packed courtyard at the Alwyn Allison Primary School at West End, where Government officials, educators, students and others gathered to celebrate the life of Teacher Art Egel, the beloved Principal.

The late Teacher Art

Invariably it seemed that a balloon would go off when his name was mentioned as if in salute to his memory. It was a cheering occasion which his widow, Mrs. Marian Egel, took in fully as she sat at the side of her visiting sister, Kathy, sometimes applauding, other times weeping but at all times demonstrating the strength of character and poise she had found in her husband.

Teachers in song

Mrs. Art remained a silent and deeply appreciative spectator as children and teachers sang and recited to the honour of the fallen Principal joined by other persons who also paid glowing tribute to the Chicago-born educator who always regarded himself as having been mentally born in Anguilla. His eventual securing of Anguillian Passport added much to that claim.

Government and Education Officials

Mrs. Art’s mind, as she sat through the school programme, may often have wandered to the day when she collected her husband’s ashes flown from Puerto Rico to Wallblake Airport. She related the intriguing story when she visited The Anguillian on Monday this week.

Government and Education Officials

“These are the little things that make me cry and laugh at the same time,” she recalled. “I was looking around on the floor for the box [with the ashes] and couldn’t find it. Then I looked at the luggage carousel and there was this white bag going around. All I could think of was how cool he would think that he got to ride around the luggage carousel. I started laughing and I picked him up and found it was the first time I could carry him with one arm. It was his sense of humour I would like to remember him by. He could laugh at anything.”

More Lives Than Many Of Us

Teacher Art went to Puerto Rico on May 1 for planned surgery at Centronadico Hospital Universitario in San Juan. She spoke freely about the matter, saying his life was an open book. “He had his colon removed as he was going to get colon cancer probably in five years,” she stated. “The surgery went fine but then he developed respiratory problems; They thought they had cleared that up and then he had pneumonia again and they thought they had cleared that up. What they finally thought happen was that he was in bed without moving for about three weeks. A blood clot formed and went to his lungs. He died on June 10 when his heart stopped.

Mrs. Art bowed her head in reflection: “This is like seven times he should have died and he didn’t. He had cancer when he was 21 and they said he had two weeks to live. A year after that he got pneumonia. They said we are sorry you are gone. There were several other pneumonias in Chicago. He came here and flipped his jeep 180 degrees on the Shoal Bay Road and landed on his head but without a scratch. He crashed his motorbike and ended up with just a broken shoulder and he should have been smashed up totally. Then he had an infection in his heart and went to Montreal, Canada …and they [the doctors] told me they didn’t think he was going to make it and he came home and was fine. He later went to Puerto Rico for a test and ended up with a perforated colon… and this time he had surgery. The first time he had the respiratory problem they thought he was going to die but he didn’t. He came back from the second one and then his heart just stopped. So he had more lives than most of us.” He was 56 years old.

It was for health reasons and not being able to take the cold any more in Chicago that he came to Anguilla on January 6, 1996 to settle, to teach and to become involved in various school and community activities giving him the feeling of being an Anguillian.

Big Party In July

Mrs. Art thought about his passing: “It means that my house is empty…but he truly believed that while you are here [on earth] you should go on and love as much as you can,” she sobbed. “I have never been loved like that before and I probably won’t be loved ever again like that, but life goes on. He would tell me not to mourn him, but just to enjoy all that we shared and to move on with my life.”

Marian Egel with sister Kathy at left

It was these thoughts that must have been going through her mind as she sat and listened to the tributes at the Alwyn Allison Primary School and was pleased that despite all the pain it still had elements of a happy occasion. She left Anguilla for Chicago on Wednesday this week for her mother’s 90 birthday and promises to have a big party in July for all the people of Anguilla.

Mrs. Art is grateful to the teachers, students and all the people of the island for their tributes and good wishes and especially for the programme at the Alwyn Allison School. That programme included performances by the teachers and students, remarks by President of the Parent Teachers Association, Curtis Richardson, Albert Hughes, Elected Member for West End/Long Bay, members of Camp Be Aware, the environmental club which Teacher Art had formed for school children; Chief Education Officer, Ronda Connor and reflections by Reverend Joseph Lloyd, all in praise to Teacher Art for his outstanding contribution to Anguilla.

Mrs. Art, who will remain in Anguilla, is a secretarial employee at the Anguilla Electrical Company’s Power Station at Corito.

Never To Be Forgotten

Government and Education Officials

An excerpt from Mrs. Connor’s tribute stated: “Teacher Art was committed to providing professional development for his staff. Ensuring that adequate resources were available for his school was of paramount importance to him and he took school-based fundraising to a higher level, garnering support for projects that others have considered impossible. He was a mover and a shaker. He got things done and he never sought accolades. Teacher Art was a no nonsense person. He was honest and frank in expressing his opinions… He was a work of art. He has made an impression on the lives of many and we will never forget him.”

During his years in Anguilla he taught at Road Primary, Stoney Ground and the Alwyn Allison School at West End, leaving a proud legacy as a professional educator and principal.

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