THEY spoke touchingly and frankly about Hugh Crosskill yesterday — a brilliant broadcast journalist, a committed Caribbean man and a fragile human being, who struggled with his own demons. And towards the end close to redemption.

But that was the public Crosskill — tall, upright, fully-bearded and in his youth, big-afroed. The commanding barritone of authoritative reports.

But they didn’t know the Hugh Crosskill of six-year-old Jamila. The Crosskill who was … well … just daddy.

And many wept for her simple innocence and the near totality of her loss.

“Dear daddy,” she read, in the letter to her father, “I miss you and I hope you are okay. I want you to be safe with God. You are my dad and I love you and I want you to be safe wherever you are.”

According to Rev Al Miller, Crosskill is indeed safe with God. Fighting the drug addiction that had upturned his life in recent years, Crosskill, he believes, with the help of God was on the verge of a breakthrough.

He was to have been baptised at Miller’s church only two days after he was shot by a security guard at the medical complex in Kingston on June 7, in what, up to now, remains fuzzy circumstances. He had apparently slept there the night before.

Crosskill’s standing in the society and renown has moved him beyond being a mere statistic, but in fact, he is one of more than 425 people who have died violently in Jamaica so far this year.

Which was the point of the remarks of older brother Darryl. This cycle of violence respects no one, but more so those who most need protection.

Said he: “How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry? How many deaths before we realise that too many have died? … I take the opportunity to use my brother’s life and death to hold up a mirror to Jamaica. I want to ask when will Jamaica say that we are done with the blood of our children and we are now satisfied?

“…Whatever style he might have chosen, how can we live with the knowledge that unarmed and in distress he (Hugh) was shot through the heart in Kingston.”

For Simon, younger by five years, Hugh was “my hero” and the only man he ever wanted to emulate.

“My hope is that he knows how much he means to me,” said Simon. “I will miss him forever and will try to bathe in his light… We became distant after efforts to get him back on the right track failed. But he was my hero and I still want to emulate him.”

But there was a lecture for the hardened and calloused society which is hardly outraged by the blood and the loss of life.

“…It no longer enrages society when the only way to restrain an unarmed man is with a bullet,” he said.

Crosskill’s influence as a broadcast journalist went well beyond Jamaica — first to the Caribbean as the first head of CanaRadio, the radio service of the now defunct Caribbean News Agency and later as head of the BBC’s Caribbean service.

For yesterday’s service of thanksgiving for Crosskill’s life at the University Chapel at Mona, a group of regional journalists came to Jamaica.

Rickey Singh, the Guyana-born journalist who lives in Barbados and has covered the Caribbean for decades, spoke on their behalf.

Said Singh: “Hugh belonged to all of us — he was a Caribbean man. His commitment was to the Caribbean. He did not live to see his dream of a united Caribbean but I hope that his children will come to recognise that dream.”

Rev Miller, the officiating minister, challenged those who live to let Crosskill’s death accomplish more than his life.

“Your greatest tribute is to help fulfil Hugh’s dream — to stem the drug tide and to look at how the poor is treated, use your position to destroy what destroyed Hugh,” Miller said.

He too lamented the heartlessness of a society that placed so little value on life.

“Sleeping in an unauthorised place should never be punishable by death but Hugh’s experience is not an uncommon one,” he said. “Are we content to continue in a society that functions in that way…?”

According to Miller, who had counselled Crosskill in the weeks before his death, the broadcaster had a “powerful encounter with the Spirit”, but wanted to stay on the streets to be absolutely certain that he “wanted out (of drug addiction) more than he wanted in (re-integration into regular life)”. There was also a desire for knowledge as a platform to help, according to Miller.

“Hugh wanted to learn about life on the streets, he said so that he could prevent others from going there,” said the preacher. “But his death challenges us to look at how we treat those down under.”

Miller, like others, is surprised of the reported accounts of how Crosskill died — in a scuffle.

“When they called and said that he was shot during a scuffle, I said ‘Hugh! Who would not say boo to a ghost…’ ” he said.

Former colleague from Crosskill’s days at the now defunct Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC), Jose Walton , in his tribute called on the relevant persons to give Crosskill a national award for journalism.

“His greatness cannot be questioned. He was fair and disciplined … a good competitor on the football field. I call on the powers that be to give him a national award for journalism,” he said.

Then came the children Ayanna; in the middle, and Joel, to talk about the father and friend and little Jamila and her plea for God to keep her father safe.