An ode to a friend gone too soon

Jonathan Namatati was a generous soul, an absolute gentleman and a brilliant engineer. Any friend of his friends was his friend. He loved people and he had no trouble showing it. 

Jonah lived as if it was his sole mission to make others happy. He spoke quietly but with conviction and when he arrived in a place, the warmth of his generosity always spread fast. Quite modest in person, his deeds went before him while he preferred to hang back and quietly enjoy seeing others light up.

From our younger days, I am reminded of his devotion to a regular schedule of karaoke nights out at then popular haunt- Alleygators. I still don’t remember how or why we started going to karaoke at the bowling alley. 

In retrospect, his eagerness to go on this weekly adventure was a more-than-generous offer of time from a friend, seeing as he never sang himself but seemingly enjoyed going along as the rest of us made fools of ourselves. He was like the brother I never asked for, but got anyway. Coincidentally, he was born on the same date (August 19) five years earlier than my own brother, in 1975.  

At the karaoke bar, Jonah never took the mike to sing. And yet every week, he turned up promptly for another night of often hilariously bad singing. And this is only one of many adventures, which I am sure his many friends will recall, in which the mild-mannered Jonathan indulged the rest of us so that everyone could have a good time. 

Many tributes have been shared by friends who met Jonah in school, at Nabumali High School and Makerere College School. Jonathan graduated as a civil engineer from Makerere University in 2000.

Although he was a fun-loving guy who never wasted an opportunity to turn a mildly good day into a great one, he was also a dedicated professional, an engineer whose work on our highways lives on. 

He worked with Stirling Construction Company before forming his own Narthcon Construction Company in 2005, where he has been director to date. It was Jonah who first took me to class on the mathematics of road engineering and how the Ugandan system worked. 

When you met Jonah, it was not hard to imagine how he was raised. He grew up in a middle-class family raised by a doctor and a lawyer, who became a Supreme Court judge. Jonathan was a gentleman through and through, never dropping his good manners in the face of the latest excitement. 

In spite of challenges with his health, he stayed cheerful, always connected to his network of friends and ready to make the best out of a less than ideal situation. No matter how scattered or virtual our existence became, he knew how to stay connected. 

Perhaps the words of his elder brother Denis sum up nicely and simply all my labouring with words: “Jonathan was fun-loving, generous to friends and family.” Fare-thee-well Jonathan, you lived as best as you could and you will forever be missed.

Ms Nampewo is a writer, editor and communications consultant     
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