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I just got news that Dereck Calliste AKA Comical has moved on. It happened last Sunday. My thoughts are with his brothers & sisters, Colin, Eileen, Sandra, Rita & Trevor AKA Mike & Bias, & the rest of the his family.
Dereck was well known as a guitarist, playing with Gouyave bands such as Harmony’s with Brass & Elites Vibrations. He also played with some other top hoach bands in the St. George’s area. One was a band from Paddock that included the ace steel pan, calypso & soca artiste, Daniel Sealey AKA Black Scorpion, & bassist Wooden Pudden.
Dereck left Grenada to pursue his dream of becoming a medical doctor in the USA, however, he continued playing his guitar.
Those of us who were close to him, knew him as an unrepentant lighthearted prankster. He constantly had us laughing. For this we nicknamed, Comical.
Also, Derick was a really good karate student: one of the top fighters, too. Yet, I never knew him in a fight outside of the dojo. Outside of the dojo he was just Comical, the guitarist.
He love books; he swallowed down books as rapidly as other Gouyave men swallowed down bottles of liquor on the Lance, day & night. He always approached things as an intellectual - even his recreational music. He was deep into the study of musical modes like the Ionian mode etc.
Viva, Dereck.
Such beautiful memories of my beloved Derek! I bless you today in the awesome name of our Lord and Savior for honoring my brothers the way you have!
Sandra
Sandra
As many of you have heard Derek passed on Sunday June 23, 2019. My brother and the rest of our family relocated to Gouyave in St. John’s in 1961 and became a gouyavearian.
He attended St. John’s Christian College then transferred to GBSS. He was employed in the clinical lab in St. George’s until he relocated to the USA. Derek has 2 children, his pride and joy was his daughter who lives in Grenada, and his son who lives in the USA.
Derek really wanted to make a great contribution to Grenada, the love of his life so much so he refused to become a US citizen. Derek was very intelligent, and determined. He singlehanded payed his way to medical school!
One of Derek’s last wish was to return to Grenada August 2019 for good! Derek explained it this “Girlie I must go home, that was the only time in my life I was happy....I will go home and run the lab, make it the best in the Caribbean so no more sending labs to Barbados”! He will keep that promise because he will be home in August 2019!
My brother was know by his friend as ‘bount -to’ a term of endearment given to him in association with our dad who was know to knock back a few! My brother Derek was a GREAT musician. He taught himself to play several musical instruments and he was a mean guitarist! He was a member of Harmony’s With Brass, and later Elite International! He also created a band and had jam sessions in New Jersey.
Derek also loved the Lord and became a born again Christian in 2012, and insisted that his son accompany him to church! He was the lead guitarist in his church, and taught his son to play the guitar! His son is a chip of the old block and a mean guitarist!
Derek made friends everywhere. At work at Morristown Medical Center he was loved by everyone, staff, patients alike. He kept them ‘wetting their pants’ as one of the Nurses on the Telemetry Unit memorialized him to me.
Derek was also a scientist with Sanofe, where he participated in making several vaccines. He was very excited about his contribution to wellness.
Derek lived to make people laugh! Yes he was hilarious, and had an active, vivid imagination! Derek made imagined stories come to life!
He was very honest, and always took responsibility for his sometimes questionable statements.
It is with a heavy heart I am writing these memories of my brother. Derek was a loyal brother and knew how to end a messed up situation! Evidence is when he asked to say hello to a new boyfriend and told the guy ‘hello, I am her man, and I want you to explain to me what’s going on!” That was the end of that, and as Derek reasoned with me “girlie that man is too uptight, you can’t take him to Jab Jab!” Ahhh if you had Derek you did not need any a break-up words!
Derek was very much Gouyave. He loved to participate in the latest gossip which infuriated everyone in the family and it was a hilarious challenge trying to keep him in his lane because he would find a way to circumvent the topic to skillfully interject the story he was dying to share with you! Yes he was a hilarious hopeless gossip!
It is an impossible task to sum up ones life with just a few words but here it is!
Derek Reynold Calliste had 8 siblings, Andy Calliste in the UK, Lennox Calliste in Saint Croix, Michael Calliste in the US, and Colin Calliste in Canada. His sisters are Eileen Calliste, Jessie Calliste and Rita Calliste! Our parents are Irene and Lincoln Calliste, several nephew and nieces, and a gazelion number of relatives to include the Forrester, Courtneys, Donald, and Degales, Bholas, and Rhamdannys.
He has left us to mourn and miss his presence. I thank everyone of you who have met and shared a moment with my brother! You added to the essence of the man he became!
I now invite you to share your stories about my beloved brother. I will follow up with details about a church service I will hold in honor of my brother in the next week or two!
Meanwhile be good to each other and seize every moment because that’s all we have. Tomorrow is not promised!
Blessings all! Sandra
To Sandra, Rita, and all other members of Derek's family, please accept my heartfelt sympathies on his passing. My thoughts are with you at this difficult time. RIP Derek!
