Last November I made this promise to the late Herman Young, co- coach of the Fatima Hockey Team which by virtue of having won the local 1999 championship division, were participating in the second Pan American Club Championships out at the Tacarigua Hockey Ground. Fatima, a team of ex-students including Young's two sons, Alan and Colin, had reached the finals against Goa Reds of Canada.
"Tell your boys if they win the championships tonight I shall get together with them and write their story." Young smiled his quiet smile and nodded in agreement. Although his team emerged silver medallists, I promised to still write their story.
This was never to be as by January 20, 2001, exactly eight months after the passing of his beloved wife, Meilyn on May 11, 2000, Herman Young also passed away. Both after sudden and short illnesses.
It took this past three months for me to come to terms with the deaths of this beautiful couple who were devoted to each other, their three offspring, Cathryn (36), Alan (35) and Colin (32), and nine grandchildren, who have been left to carry on their parents legacy of providing the best pharmaceutical service to the people of Maraval and its environs, to write their story.
The young Youngs, Alan, a pharmacist who was assistant to his father, the managing director, Colin, Distribution and Warehouse Manager, who is in charge of wholesale and foreign lines and Cathryn, Corporate Secretary, are still taking it day by day. "We knew the routines but when new things arise just have to take it by the horns, we have no choice about it." And they are managing with the support of dedicated staff and a solid great-aunt, Joan Allum Poon, who at age 84 handles the accounts. "She is really like our Granny as she raised our Mom" said Alan.
Herman and Meilyn had known each other in Trinidad, but it was not until Meilyn went to London to study nursing and switched to the secretarial field, and Herman to the University of Dublin in Ireland to study pharmacology, that the love affair blossomed and by March 30, 1964 they were married in England.
To people like myself who frequent Young's Pharma-Serv, it was obvious that Herman was just coming to terms with the death of his beloved Meilyn, when we learned that he was seriously ill. The Youngs' meant the world to each other, and according to their children "from the day the business opened at Saddle Road in 1980, it was Mummy and Daddy day-in and day-out for those 16 years until she went into semi-retirement in 1997 to look after her grandchildren."
While his mother was always the quieter, says Colin "she was always there. She was always firm in her beliefs, I can still hear her saying to me whenever you are in doubt you do not do. She played a really big part in everything Dad did for 36 years. Mom was his rock. The thing is that even when she stayed home from the business, she would still fill in week-ends or afternoons if we were short, so you missed her presence and seeing her here but at least you had something to go home to."
Herman received a Bachelor of Science (Pharmacology) from the University of Dublin after seven years of detailed study, and gained extensive experience in the industry as Director and Divisonal Manager of the Drug Division in a subsidiary of a large corporate firm for 13 years prior to starting the family business. Says Colin proudly "he knew how to do most of everything pertaining to the medical field, and had background and experience. He was in love with this business, enjoyed meeting people and even on the wholesale side knew how to handle everything. Dad had a great personal touch with everybody. "
Young was a past president of the Pharmacy Board of Trinidad and Tobago, had been a Council Member for eight years, and was appointed by the then Minister of Health to the Drug Advisory Committee of the Food and Drugs Division in which position he was elected to serve on special sub-committees for the amendment of the Food and Drugs Act and the Advertising Committee.
However, it was on the hockey field that Herman Young was held in awe by his peers, spectators, sportswriters and commentators, from Trinidad to Dublin and back. His hockey started at Fatima College where he also played First Division soccer. He played hockey for both Chinese and Rugby Hockey Clubs, and up to last year played not only veteran's hockey but in October played for Queen's Park in the Oval's eight-a-side Football Tournament.
One younger hockey player who remembers playing against a 40-year old Young commented " he was still fast, fast, fast, and was easily the best hockey forward ever." His daughter Cathryn recalls "Indoor Hockey started with Dad and some others. I remember the discussions at our dining table in Woodbrook." The first-ever Indoor Hockey Tournament was the Air Canada sponsored six-a-side at Chinese Association's Hall in St Ann's.
Herman Young celebrated his 18th birthday on August 21, 1959, aboard the 7 p.m. flight to British Guiana as a member of the National Hockey Team. "For Herman Young, who had earned his first cap for Trinidad, it was a glorious send off. Today marked his eighteenth birthday" said the airport correspondent. From as early as the second of the five test series, Guianese reporters had the 18 year old destined to be the player of the series and at the end of the series, the diminutive, inside right forward was named "the best player on either side" by his captain, Eric De Verteuil.
Very soon after, the University College of Ireland's hockey team's gain was Trinidad's loss, as Young not only captained his University team but was selected to play for the Irish Universities combined against their Scottish counterparts.
On completion of his studies, Young made a second debut at age 26 on the national team in a goodwill match at the Queen's Park Oval, against Canada in 1968, scoring the lone goal and immediately picking up where he had left off with our local sports reporters, such as, Newsday's George Baptiste, who named him "the pick of the Trinidad forwards." The Trinis, minus Young, had beaten the Canadians the year before to take the silver medal place at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg. It was no surprise that by the 1971 Pan Am Games in Cali, Colombia, Young was captain of the team of which, incidentally, our present Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide was manager/player.
Young remained a member of the north and national teams for many years, and was continuously highly rated in the positions he filled on the forward line by all sports reporters/columnists.
One of the best comments by "Bully Off" reads "the dapper Chinese centre forward is undoubtedly the best forward in Trinidad today, bar none. Recently I saw his combination of lightning speed and magnetised stick take the ball from midfield into the circle and from there a cannon shot rocketed into the southern goal (it was a North- South match) almost decapitating the goalkeeper...I haven't tallied the individual goalscorers in the league but Herman Young is so far ahead that it only remains to establish the margin...To show how prolific he has been, in the Chinese match against Rovers which Chinese won by 5-0, Herman Young scored all five."