MY TRIBUTE – TO MY SON, NIGEL

By Joan (Phillips) Evangeline Wilson

STEPHEN NIGEL PHILLIPS, my second child, born in England, 25^th August, 1958. Died 24th Nov 2019.

Top Artist, Musician, Electrician (the tidiest one on Earth), Swimmer, Tennis Player, Pianist.

Nigel was a friend to all, especially the less fortunate.

He was a Father to a beautiful daughter, Joanna, named after me.

He owned a lovely home in George Town, equipped with tasteful furnishings, music and his favourite piece – a piano.

After Hurricane Ivan, the piano got badly damaged and would not play anymore. He still kept it, in its pride of place.

From then on he concentrated on the musical equipment that he not only listened to, but watched the artists perform via a link to his television. I spent many hours sitting with him, listening and viewing with much amazement.

Not only was the home beautiful inside, but so was the outside. His garden was filled with trees and flowering plants, which he daily attended to, even after his illness hit him that confined him to a wheelchair.

I know all this because I visited him every day to check that all was in good order, and believe you me, it was.

Nigel was not a church goer but I know he believed in God and he was thankful he had been favoured with so much talent.

I think what might have started his illness – bladder cancer, or contributed to it some years later, was the accident he had at the Truman Bodden Sports Centre, when it was first being constructed.

He was wiring the huge tall floodlights there with his brother, Garry (also an Electrician), when the weather suddenly changed and a strong wind sprung up. This caused the lift they were perched on to topple and they both fell. Garry to the ground but Nigel dropped into the deep trench that had been dug nearby, adding to the distance he had fallen.

Nigel had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital and his injuries were so severe he was airlifted to Miami. His spinal cord was almost broken and it needed plenty of steel in it to repair the damage before the natural healing took place.

Of course, this changed his lifestyle a lot.

He visited me frequently, often with food, all the way from East End. This continued even after his cancer was getting worse and his wheelchair confinement.

Whenever I visited him just recently, he was entertaining his friends. Gossiping, playing music, his favorite singer was Englebert Humperdinck and discussing his favourite football team, Manchester United.

Nigel has left to mourn his loving family, including his father Peter, sister Christine and brother Garry, his daughter Joanna and granddaughter Leilya, stepmother Penny Phillips, stepfather, Colin Wilson, plus his many friends.

Rest In Peace my clever musician son – May God accept you into his Kingdom with open arms where I know you will be happily welcomed and blessed.

Until we meet again,

Your Mother.

EDITOR: Just to add a Post-Script to Joan’s Tribute. Three Christmas’s ago at our home Nigel asked me if I had any music by Englebert Humperdinck? I said ‘yes’ I had a CD with all his hits. He told me Englebert was his favorite singer and the song he liked best of his was “Love Is All”. I checked and it was not on the playlist. He was disappointed but even though it was Christmas Day and not one piece of music on that particular CD was Christmas I still played them all. All twenty tracks! He sat sipping his beer listening intently to them.

About a month later Nigel turned up at our house with a box set of all of Englebert’s recorded music. He had a big smile on his face. He handed me one of the discs and said, “There it is. There’s the song ‘Love Is All.'”

He asked me to play it and at the same time I recorded it myself.

“Just listen to the words. Especially the chorus.” He added.

It was a command. He took after his mother, there.

I agreed with him it is a beautiful song. I also realized I had heard the song before but it was a version recorded by a British group called The Bachelors. Englebert’s is better.

I played the song a lot. Since Nigel’s death, Joan and I listen to it every day.

I will leave you then with the words from the chorus.

“Love is all I have to give

Love is all as long as I shall live

So take it all and I’ll always be there

When you call my name

I know, now that love is all.”