This memorial website was created to remember our dearest Aslyn McCauley Ebanks who was born in Jamaica ,Flagaman St. Elizabeth on July 1, 1949 and passed away on August 27,2006 at the age of 57. You will live forever in our memories and hearts.

A Tribute to

Aslyn McCauley Ebanks

To the community at large he was EB, a tall, charming individual whose sparkling eyes and pleasant smile personified someone with a heart of gold. To us the family, we knew him as Cookes, a dedicated family man who loved his sons as much as he loved his parents. I gave him the name Cookes many years ago as a small child, why I do not know but the name stuck. On Saturday last I saw him alive for the last time, I sat on his bed and told him he was always a favourite cousin of mine and how much I always enjoyed being around him and looked forward to seeing him. He smiled, Cookes was a favourite of all of us, we all enjoyed being around him and looked forward to seeing him, it wasn’t just me who loved him, we all did.

He started life as a bouncing happy baby, second son of Earl and Carmen Ebanks. Aslyn enjoyed his childhood doing typical boy things, looking wood, tying out and milking goats, playing marbles and spinning gig, setting calaban to catch birds, fashioning cars from old-time cotton reels and used paint pan covers. His siblings Emerson and Doreen recall the fun they shared growing up as children, with Aslyn the perennial joker. He loved telling jokes and could hardly contain himself when he had a new joke to share, he loved laughing and you could guarantee to be laughing whenever you were in his company. His cousin Garry also recalls how many pranks himself and Aslyn would get up to as youngsters and the closeness they shared as cousins. It was infectious, you could not know him and not love him, he was the consummate people person.

As a young man, full of excitement, kicking up the dust with his first car in Flagaman Square, he could have sought employment in any parish, but his devotion to his parents predicated the decision to work near so he could stay at home to take care of them. Even having left home to work in Kingston in his later years he would religiously go home every weekend to be with his father. This he did without ever once complaining.

Working in Mandeville, he made his name in the auto parts industry, first with Central Motors, then in his own endeavour with New Central Motors and finally with Daytona Sales in Kingston. He was a dedicated and hardworking employee, never missing work for insignificant reasons, was extremely loyal and exceedingly trustworthy. These traits he carried not just as an employee, but also as a person and everyone who knew him knew this to be true. He worked all his adult life and even at the end when his health was not the best, he continued working, never letting on that there was a problem.

A devoted family man, Aslyn and Sharon were blessed with two sons Daje and Andre of who he was immensely proud. He would deny himself to ensure that his boys wanted for nothing and he encouraged them to be the best at whatever they chose to do in life. A recent grandfather, his pride and joy was Andre Jr. On Saturday last when son and grandson arrived and greeted Aslyn, he barely recognized them, it was probably then for the first time we realized how badly his health had deteriorated.

We never had time to understand or accept his illness, we never had time to treat or cure him, it seems as if he was gone from us before we realized what had happened. The thing is Aslyn will never be far from us, his spirit remains with us and reminds us of the good things about life. As someone full of so much laughter, he would not want to be remembered with tears, rather, he would want each of us to remember him with deep affection for all the fun, the laughter, the love he shared with us.

He was a selfless person who could never say no. He was the type of person who would drop everything to help a friend. No favour was too big, no person too small, no journey was too far, no task too difficult. Aslyn was known by everyone without being a celebrity, he was admired by everyone without being a champion, he was respected by everyone without being a leader, he was a man amongst men and a shinning example of what humility, kindness and friendship really mean. To all of us Aslyn was special and such we will remember him fondly, long live your memory Cookes, we are the better for having known you and we are certainly glad that you passed our way.

Love Always,

Dexter (cousin)