The everlasting friendship of Jose Sulaiman

If a person is to be judged by their friends, then during and throughout his extraordinary and exceptional life, Jose Sulaiman gained riches beyond measure, as the Service at the Old Basilica of Guadalupe, was packed with members of the World Boxing Council`s Global Family from all corners of The Earth.

On this poignant twelfth Anniversary, family friend Maronite Bishop Mons George Saad Abi Younes, tall lean and strait backed, topped with a shock of white hair, who always takes the Service and talks about Don Jose`s God given gift of friendship, his kindness, his loyalty and his love of family. Attired in his cream robes with his silver topped Mitre and Bishop`s Hat which glinted with rubies in the bright January sunbeams glinting through the heavy oaken doors. Over the decades, The Basilica with its top heavy structure, has sunk and settled into a tilt, perched on the soft former lake bed soil of Mexico City. But doesn`t life itself invariably come at us at an odd angle?

Don Jose`s Grand Daughter Monica, who read two of the lessons. Lucy, Fernando, Hector and Mauricio Sulaiman, standing shoulder to shoulder in a pew and then going forward to help the Bishop with the Instruments of Mass. And the best part of the service, was the part where everyone shakes hands, embraces and kisses. The heart warming seal of friendship and love which bonds the Biggest entity in the Boxing World. You can judge and assess an organization by the quality of its people. Quality counts.

Mozart`s Death Requiem, Ave Maria by Franz Schubert, then the uplifting Ode to Joy by Ludwig Van Beethoven, for this was a celebration of a life well lived, not a lament. Before the Ceremony, there was a tad of difficulty placing the smiling portrait of Don Jose on the plinth. It kept slipping. Don Jose who liked a chuckle, would have seen the humor in this.

Also a little girl, dressed in a pink anorak being tenderly led, hand in hand by her father. Don Jose would have loved this moment, as he adored his grand children and was magically wonderful with the young generation, who in turn were drawn to him. And the older generation of The Third Age, will tell you that at our time of life, the days pass slowly, yet the years fly by quickly.

And in reality, it`s difficult to believe that twelve years have swept by since Don Jose`s passing. But what a life, packed and crammed with ground breaking achievements which have forever changed the face of Boxing and brought it into the modern and more humane era.

For Jose Sulaiman loyalty to boxers was the paramount priority and he greatly improved the safety plus health measures, which improved their well being so there could be tomorrows… after todays. He was fond of saying: ”He who does not live to serve, does not serve to live.”