Can you really be good friends with someone you have never met? I think so. Dewin Nefol (AKA Chris), the writer, poet, activist and thoroughly nice guy, was a good friend. I shall miss him terribly.
Dewin began communicating with me via my blog. Always with intelligent observations, providing evidence and insight. We continued our dialogue via Email and he even phoned me a few times, but we never met.
It’s only now that I realise how little I know about him – his age, what he looked like, even the job he was doing. Somehow those things did not seem important. Dewin (AKA Chris) was more than those things.
What came across to me was a deeply compassionate and caring man. A creative force full of concern for others and a spiritual person who saw life as a contest between good and evil.
He resigned his post in the DHSS in disgust at the way people were being treated. He set about producing a venture to help unfortunate people. He wanted me to help because he thought that I was like-minded. He was politically motivated in the best of ways. We both despised the Tories for their callous treatment of people and greedy, self-serving ways. We both wanted to help build a better world.
Dewin cared greatly. He felt it almost as a physical pain.
He also produced these amazing epic poems in the sword and sorcery mode and I bought and enjoyed his book – The Wizard of Wands. It was unique and multilayered – very clever. It brought to life that struggle that goes on both within and around us.
A couple of days ago I was informed by Declan, Dewin’s nephew, that he had suddenly died. It came as a great shock. Dewin was so full of life and we had been conversing a lot recently. I could not believe that he was just gone, to be heard from no more. My eyes are filled with tears.
Our conversations ranged through the various political outrages to Covid and the war – always tinged with that same intelligence and caring attitude. He was well-read and researched things well.
The last thing he said to me was about the terrible Ukrainian war:
‘Do we stand by and watch or act with force? I’m glad I’m not making these huge decisions.’
So long Dewin. I will miss you Buddy!!
Opher, this is terrible. In the last couple of months, I had started to interact with Dewin on a number of threads on your blog. While he had very different views to my own, he certainly shared my (and your) total contempt for the Tories as they have become. And yes, when he gave his opinion, he knew what he was talking about. A great loss.
Greatly saddened me Neil. Dewin has been a friend for years and he always was a compassionate and intelligent commentator whose views and interactions I greatly valued. A really nice guy. It came as a real shock. I don’t think he was that old at all. A real loss.