On January 18th, Melvin Hulse gave us all "one for the road". And, tonight, he's on his way, heading down that road to his great reward. The former three term Stann Creek West Area Representative and two term Minister of Works, Public Utilities and Transport Melvin Hulse passed away at 11:50 last night at St Luke's Hospital in Belmopan.
As we reported, the 74 year old had been ailing for a few years with stage 4 cancer - but, true to his personal and public code of conduct, he didn't hold back or hold his corner when we asked him to give one last interview. Ever the iconoclast and contrarian, there he was, puffing away at his cigarette and sipping black coffee, holding forth on anything we asked him.
It was a remarkable performance - except that it wasn't a performance at all - it was just Melvin, in his pure and unadulterated essence. Tonight, Jules Vasquez remembers his friend:
He was a child of the Mahogany Camps of Stann Creek District - a real "bushie" you might say:
Melvin Hulse, Deceased
"We grow up in a Mahogany camp, my old man had his saw mill out there and his garage and houses that the workers were living in and then that became the base, my home and then we went into pepper camp and go in there for 6 months - January and come out in June. It was not an exception. I did not grew up exceptionally - I grew up the same way with everybody. We went to the same creek, we went to eat the same food, we lived in the same conditions, we went to Lynam and we step together on the floor - we did everything together. I am not an exception; I am a product of those times. I am grassroots, come from valley. I will and will always be a southern boy and there is no place that I more fanatically care about that Stann Creek."
And that fanatical love for the south, the cradle of his birth and upbringing fuelled his lifelong passion to develop Stann Creek. He started in earned in in 1990:
Melvin Hulse, Deceased
"Up to then there was not a single lamp post in Stann Creek, there was not a single water pipe in Stann Creek, there no roads, there was no phone, there was nothing out there and they could say whatever they want. The fact is there was nothing. Then Manuel won in 1993 - 5 years, we developed, I created some of those villages and the villages that existed before me, I developed with another thousand lots. So I developed, I created and help develop Middlesex, Hummingbird, Valley Community, Steadfast, Alta Vista, Pomona, Hope Creek, Sarawee, Silk Grass, Hopkins, Sittee, Maya Center, Santa Rosa, San Roman, George Town, Maya Mopan, Red Bank, San Juan, Seine Bight, Placencia and Mango Creek. In that time, I put in lights, water, brought phone out there, built schools in every village - you all know that I worked hard. Never liked what happened, but I paved the Hummingbird, I paved the Southern Highway, I got Hopkins road paved, we built and paved Placencia road."
And in the end, even if his name is not remembered in those villages - Melvin Hulse knows what role he played:
Melvin Hulse, Deceased
"I'm the father of Stann Creek West, but they disowned me, no big thing and when I am dead, they could say whatever they want. The fact is that I did that out there and as long as I know, I don't need any confirmation from no one."
But beyond the south, he will endure in the public consciousness for his witticisms that have become part of common vernacular:
Melvin Hulse, Deceased
"And I start to substitute words - madafish, that is stronger than flipping."
He will also be remembered for his rigorous, unswerving integrity
Melvin Hulse, Deceased
"Cause there's two things I will never tolerate: stealing and laziness. Other than that I don't care what kind of life you want to live, you want to drink every day, you want to rot everyday - do whatever you flipping want, cause I'm not living with you, but when we are at work and all of us are collecting tax payers money, work for it - it done."
Jules Vasquez
"You should be a wealthy man. Did you squander your riches?"
Melvin Hulse, Deceased
"Riches, any madafishing salary are riches and you are putting children through school and sometimes you have 4-5 of them in there. The only way as a politician you could come out rich is if you are hustling."
And, even in the face death, Hulse's no nonsense attitude was unflinching:
Melvin Hulse, Deceased
"The fact, the reality is I am dying - how long I last - but the fact it will happen and not in the distant future. But we in the south, we come out of chicle and Mahogany camp, because of the life we live, we knew, we were just simply not afraid of death. Death is something that will happen and so we were more concern about what we could get done, than worry about when we will die. And for most of us who went through a lot, we are grateful that we did live to see an old age, we are grateful to live to see our children get big."
"So you want to eliminate a lot of the stress your family member dies, then you have to run around and find a cemetery spot, try to build this, organise that, do that, tents - that's why I went ahead and did it and so no rush, they will have nothing, but to be sad and to get it over with. Because when I'm gone, I ain't coming back - not a flipping way."
Jules Vasquez
"We form attachments in life - we love life - we love the people in our life, we love our families and that's really the hard part about death."
Melvin Hulse, Deceased
"Well, for me it isn't, because the good Lord had said long ago, this is not heaven, so I am not going to spend time hanging on to something that I know I can't keep, I know I can't take nothing with me. I was born naked - you are lucky they put on clothes when you die and you can't take nothing else with you and I hear about heaven and hell and eternity, I am not going to take a licking here and go take a licking there, because eternity sounds longer than life on this earth. What you do, you live 70-80 years of age, if you are lucky."
Melvin Hulse was lucky - he got to 74 - he will be missed by his 11 children, by his beloved south, and by this friend who knows there will never be another like him in public life, not even close.
Hulse has 11 children, and boasts that he was on good terms with all of them.
The family has announced that State Services will be held on Monday, 11th April, 2022 10 a.m. at 20 miles Hummingbird Highway, in the Stann Creek Valley.
