TRIBUTE BY TONY LAING (BROTHER)

A lot has been said already and to avoid repetition I have decided to narrate what to me reveals a lot about Yosi. At about the age of four on a Christmas eve, Yosi and I were setting up a fireworks display on the street where we lived. We had placed the rocket in an old beer bottle for support. As soon as a lighted match was applied there appeared a watchman of a bar accusing Yosi of stealing his beer bottle. At that particular moment Yosi ordered me to run to the house which I did. Within seconds the rocket shot into the sky in beautiful primary colours illuminating the the whole street. The watchman disappeared allowing Yosi to make a dash to the house.

As a nino boy in Achimota in 1954 I always anticipated a visit by Yosi at the weekend. Why? Because he would visit with a bar of mouthwatering, finger-licking chocolate. Now that we know a lot about the properties of cocoa it appears he was far ahead in utilising these properties to build me into a man to withstand the bullying of my seniors.

I was leaving the shores of Ghana for Scotland in 1961 to train as a medical doctor. What better gift to receive from Yosi than a book “How to live”, advising you how to comport yourself, which news papers to read, how to take lecture notes and so on and so forth. One line I still remember is “Never run after a woman, like a bus one will pass by in a minute”.

Just before he died he enquired about the postgraduate students studying plastic surgery. I told him we have reproduced ourselves and that within two years there has been an increment of four new plastic surgeons. In a feeble voice he said, congratulations. Encourage them, encourage them.

Yosi would send you a copy of any article or books he thought would be of interest to you, be it on piano or organ playing or even new developments in prosthesis for amputated limbs.

Yosi cared for all he came into contact with, blood relations or not. He encouraged people. He was fantastic mentor. He once said “There is great pleasure in seeing your students excel”. He will be missed but we will carry on his legacy.