Ode to Bertram, The Ultimate Newspaperman!
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I never asked Bertram what his real or full name was, but when I got the news Saturday morning that my favorite newspaper vendor had died, my heart simply dropped – meaning, it skipped a beat.
Bertram Emmanuel
The bearer of this bad news fellow VOICE columnist Carlton Ishmael knew Bertram was the only vendor I sourced all my newspapers from on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.
Perched ever-comfortably every ‘newspaper day’ in his wheelchair outside the entrance to Massey’s Waterfront outlet, he’d have his parcels of all four-weekend papers (VOICE, Star, Mirror and One Caribbean) wrapped and encircled in elastic bands with names appended, monthly clients (like me) simply picking-up our handed parcels on arrival and either engaging him in a brief chat, or simply collecting and moving on like clockwork.