Wahid – Ewen Macdonald
4 January 1947 – 1 October 2024

There are times when the magnitude of what we call life leaves one speechless.

It is enough that the coming of each day brings light, and opens every facet of this world to our eyes.

And then, the mystery of night when all seems closed,  and the world is covered in darkness,  again we are in awe.

So too it is with a soul, born into this world of light appearing for its appointed length of days and then returning into that mystery from which it had its birth...

Wahid came into this world out of the mystery but for so many of us here, he carried that mystery with him sometimes as a burden and sometimes the light shone in him and now he has returned,but, mystery of mysteries the light that is Wahid remains in our memories certainly, and in his works, but I believe that for all of us gathered here he remains present with us now, as that strange of strange mysteries a scent, a resonance, an essence of that original perfection of soul that is Wahid One, a unique soul of THE soul one who carried that ONE sometimes as a burden, but more often as the years passed as that light, that light of the One, the Wahid.   Our memories, better or worse, are leavened by this light, and this light is evident in his works.   Like many of us, we first came across Wahid by way of this place.

Wahid was by trade a builder. In preparing Chisholme for the courses here, he was instrumental in the early restoration of this house, digging down and repairing the foundations where subsidence had occurred, renovating the old greenhouse, and much of the fabric of the delapidations to the walls of the garden itself.

Many of us will have known his skills in this in our own building projects. He laid the basement floor and repaired the roof of what is our family home in Hawick, and painted the exterior walls.

We know him also as a cook. I don't know how he came by this skill, suffice it to say that when we worked together in our first restaurant, in Cambridge, I realised quickly that he had le bon goût in spades, a finesse of good taste.

Among so many memories, the sweetest perhaps is of Sunday mornings sitting together in the courtyard of Strudels Restaurant as the fountain tinkled away in the background, working on menus and recipes for the coming week. He was the best cook we ever had. He regularly cooked here in the Chisholme kitchen. And his wild duck with cherry sauce was a masterwork.

As age took it's toll on his ability to repair roofs and restore stomachs, his fineness of taste carried through into his painting. He developed a completely unique style, mostly landscape – a kind of mystical landscape where for moments it seemed he was piercing the veils of the evident forms portrayed, and seeing beyond to a beauty that seeped through as light, eclipsing the pigments and fibres of this worldly canvas.

His death, as much as we can know of another's passing, was in the spirit of his life. Some pain, of course, it is inevitable in any birth, for such is the reality of passing from this world. He had been diagnosed with lung disease since some months, and then just a few weeks ago he was told he had cancer. He could no longer shop in his own, and took to his bed, eschewing invitations to be looked after in hospital. He let me know his time was coming and accepted this with that wry smile of his that spoke volumes.

A number of us here who form a little enclave in the area round Silver Street in Hawick looked in on him and took care of his needs in his final days. And somewhere in the early hours on 1 October, he surrendered his flesh and bones, quietly, without fuss, for that  wider landscape, and that canvas without borders.

Wahid was a student of this school, and first and foremost he carried and cared for this education in his heart.

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Obituary for Graham Ghaffar Falvey

d.12 June 2018, Hanoi, Vietnam

‘If you want something done with excellence, ask Ghaffar, he doesn’t know otherwise.’ Bulent Rauf

Graham was a great man, a real friend, of not so many words but of strong purposeful action.

He was a devoted friend of Chisholme, running the Estate and Garden for ten years (1985-1995). He kept the garden immaculately, while looking after the woodlands during the winter. He set the standard for growing vegetables and flowers at Chisholme, with a keen understanding of the seasons and their needs. He took great pleasure in the process.

Soon after he arrived, the ring of shelter-belt woodland around Chisholme was acquired, largely with Graham’s help and involvement. He set to with a will in the replanting of these big areas of ground. This began with the wind-blasted Front Clearfell, which he planted nearly single-handedly. He successfully navigated the grant application process with the Forestry Commission, which set the scene for the larger forestry plantings with the Millenium Forest for Scotland some years later.

Under Bulent’s guidance he established the beginnings of a wildfowl and domestic fowl collection on the lake, which became a great passion for him.

He worked very, very hard. He enjoyed it. Great gratitude to him.

But Graham’s life was not just work. At Chisholme he met, fell in love and married Wendy, and they spent several happy years together.

During the end of his time at Chisholme, following a visit to Chisholme by Alan Ereira, and the showing of Alan’s film ‘From the Heart of the World’, Graham became passionately interested in the Kogi peoples of Colombia, and their message to humanity. This led him to work as administrator for the Tairona Trust, a small charity to help the Kogi. He made two trips to meet the Kogi in their villages high in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. He clearly felt immensely privileged to make these extraordinary journeys. In Graham’s words: ‘I spent that evening swinging in a hammock in the ‘nuhue’ or ‘world house’ listening to the ‘mamas’ give us messages of greetings and being given our news in return. It was a meeting with a truly dignified and courageous people and I cherish that meeting and another meeting in 1994.’

These journeys and more travels through America and Australia, where he spent time immersed in indigenous cultures, led him, after much soul-searching to plunge Into three years of academia. He read Anthropology and Religious Studies at the University of Wales in Lampeter, taking a first class degree in 1999. He was invited to continue in this academic world, but though he felt he had learnt much and valued his tutors and lectures many of whom became good friends, he felt the academic approach constrictive and took to the road again.

He travelled more in Australia, but returning to the UK, again took up horticulture, spending three summers looking after the gloriously remote gardens of Oransay Priory. This is the only garden on the island of Oronsay. In fact it belongs to the only inhabited house on the island that can only be reached by walking at low tide across a mile of sand from neighbouring Colonsay. A typically remote spot for Graham, but populated with a wealth of wildlife which he loved, and an ancient spiritual history reaching back to Saint Columba, which he much revered.

Graham was always moving into new territory, and during these winter months which he spent in the Borders, he developed an interest in IT which had started with his Tairona Trust work. He became skilled in website design and developed a number of sites for friends and colleagues.

In typical fashion he moved seemlessly on. In 2003, he trained in teaching English as a foreign language, gaining a TESOL certificate, giving him an additional passport to travel where his heart led.

The next thing we knew, he was living and teaching in Hanoi, a situation that seemed to suit him down to the ground. There he finally put down roots and made a career that suited his roving spirit, which he loved, and in which he was much loved in return. He met and very happily married Hop and set up home in Hanoi. Since then we have been treated to the occasional visit to the UK. He twice brought Hop to visit Chisholme and local friends. Though living in the Far East, he hasn’t seemed so far away. The wonderful article that he recently wrote ‘A Thing of Beauty...’ published on line in the Beshara Magazine, shows his depth of vision, and somehow kept him close as a friend.

Graham was a man of great humility and integrity. He came from an RAF background and grew up on the move. Moving was his way of finding a still point. He travelled lightly, while maintaining a consistent and un-erodible commitment to a real spiritual life. He was a faithful friend and a great, great wit.

I met him first in the summer of 1975. He was living in a tiny tent in a cherry orchard in Kent, where he was one of very few who would dare to pick off the gigantic 60ft ladders that reached high into the highest trees. He took that in his singular stride, humbly but with strength. He was always like that. He will be remembered in many sweet ways, and sorely missed. But we can be confident that he will walk this last journey as properly as he did every journey on which he embarked during his life.

John Hill
Sherborne Glos. 2018

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A man of wisdom, scholar, guide and dear friend to so many, without whose vision and foresight the school at Chisholme would never have come about.

In a very personal account written in 2012, John Brass pays tribute to this remarkable man.

Read the full article here

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