Daniel Sylverston

My mom sent my sister and I to Cape Town, Chonch was 5 and I was a year older. We lived with our grandma and at that time my uncle Daniel lived there too. We called him Dana mama and I when I say his name, that name, it's love and affection I feel. Chonch and I took turns in mixing his "trakasma" which was diluted in equal portions of water; it was my uncle's daily dose of chronic asthma meds, he worked as a "collector" and would drive to townships where he would use a torch to identify debtor's houses, knock on their door and collect money- all this while Chonch and I would sit together in the rear compartment of his green VW Beetle. We had no mom or dad to look to for anything, and our uncles and grandma were our "go to" peeps. Dana mama was always the gentle but firm uncle, he always always made a plan- he organized my very first set of 195/50/15 tyres, second hand nogal! But I didn't care about the condition after all my uncle said they were fine! He and aunty Millie saw that I had a tailor made suit for my 21st birthday celebration, he told me he wanted to do something that I would remember. And he never expected anything in return. I recall his first w123 and that blue/green colour combo that just popped. And he was jealous af! Absolutely! He had the windows in his Sierra tinted coz he got wind that this guy in Corovoca was checking my pretty aunty Millie out! I think she worked with my mom at that time. And that was when I lived with him in Corovoca during the hectic floods and access to La Mercy was compromised. I traveled from there to UDW coz it was just closer. He was family. Like proper family, gangsta. Where you knew your uncle got your back. I grew up without Louis unna and Noel unna, uncle Pinky, uncle Brian, Mark and other family. Tino unna and Ivan unna too. When Mona fell pregnant tradition dictated that her dad walk her down the aisle, Dana mama filled that gap and not once did he ever ever raise religious beliefs as a tool to condemn. No religious bs like fast and pray or God gon punish you. This is the man I knew and grew to love and appreciate. Even in 2010 when I lost everything he and aunty Millie came to SA to try and mediate. That's what he did, he kept the peace. I loved this man not because he was family, but because he was genuine, he cared. I no longer know my cousins, I haven't seen Craig or Neil in 25 years, Denae maybe twice (and she will always be my baby sister) but I when I did see my uncle I saw all of my family. He was a good man. Christmas for us was ALL of us together, the 3 brothers, aunty Yanum, aunty Millie and aunty Donnie and my cousins and my mom and dad and my sister and my brother. Even though much has changed, what remains is love and hope that through uncertainty anything is possible.