Octogenarian Michael Nanak mourned

Tributes poured in at a requiem mass held for the late Michael Nelson Nanak recently. He was born on July 7 in 1933 and died on March 6 this year.

Heart-felt messages were shared by Mickey Gonzalves, Larry Seethal, Dr Dilly Naidoo, MEC Ravi Pillay and Yussuf Moosa ‘Essop’ Desai.

Michael lived in Port Shepstone his whole life and made an immense contribution to society.

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Employed at 19 years of age, he served as a legal clerk.

He retired after 47 years of loyal and dedicated service at Grobler & Seethal in 1998.

Michael will be remembered for his sound advice, wise counsel, engaging smile and willingness to help in all situations.

MEC Pillay said he ‘represented an exceptional generation of leaders who contributed so much’.

What Michael lacked in height he made up for in humility and strength of character.

Dr Naidoo described him as being an outstanding example of a selfless, caring person. He was always a thorough gentleman, respecting all, irrespective of class or station.

Despite being small in stature, he excelled at cricket (tennis and soccer, too) and played for various clubs over the years.

He generally batted number five, attacked the bowling and dashed between the wickets, seldom failing his team.

Essop Desai described two amusing cricket anecdotes.

One was of a final played at Tills Crescent ground in Durban, where 31 runs were needed to win with only three wickets on hand.

“He comes over to me as I was on the non-striker’s end and tells me, with a reassuring smile, ‘Essop, don’t worry you and I will get the required runs’. He takes strike for the next ball and his middle stump went flying. Crestfallen, he comes to me, and says ‘Essop, you on your own!’ Those exact words still ring in my ears,” said Essop.

A second incident occurred a year later when the team had a two-day match in Durban.

They had nowhere to stay on the Saturday night and finally decided to book into a Muslim charitable house.

But it was only for Muslims, so Essop took great pains in teaching Michael the traditional Muslim greetings of salaams.

“However, we all had to sign a register after greeting the pompous clerk. Eleven of squad went through, with Mike in front of me. He dutifully greeted the bull-faced clerk salaams, and began to sign the register. However, for some reason the clerk asked him in Gujrathi ‘where are you from?’. I froze next to him. Mike answered the only thing he knew, the Islamic greeting salaam!”

They got kicked out and slept in their cars on the beachfront.

The next day Michael made 63 runs and took three wickets to ensure victory for his team.

He stamped his authority at soccer too, for Panama FC, as a sharpshooter at the lower Albersville ground.

Besides his contribution in sport, he served as a member of Marburg Town Board as chairman – a demonstration of leadership in the community.

He was truly blessed with a caring and loving wife, Patricia, whom he was married to for 57 years.

He leaves Vanessa, his daughter, son Claude, two grandsons Ashton and Tristen and son-in-law Ashan.

The expert mechanic and ‘jack of all trades’ will be missed as one in a million.

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