R.I.P BUNNY

Bunny’s battle with cancer
Popular peanut vendor, singer determined to conquer deadly disease

(The popular peanut vendor and singer Arthur “Bunny” Robinson died last Tuesday at age 81, following a long fight with cancer of the bone. Today we rerun a feature on “Bunny” that was first published by the Sunday Observer on February 23, 2014, which tells, in large measure, of his fight with the dreaded disease and his resolve to conquer it.)

NO one calls him Arthur Robinson. Well, maybe his wife.

That’s the given name of arguably Kingston’s, if not Jamaica’s most popular peanut vendor. But if you were to ask most patrons at the National Stadium, Sabina Park and other prominent sport stadia and places of entertainment across the Corporate Area for Arthur Robinson, they would likely respond: ‘Arthur who?’

“Bunny” is the man. At 78, the father of 12 is marking 60 years of selling peanuts across Kingston and St Andrew, and 58 as a musician.

He has fought many battles in his lifetime, but perhaps the toughest one faces him now, and he has already donned his battle gear, ready for action as the ‘Big C’ — cancer — which has already wiped away several of his friends and associates, turns its deadly radar in his direction.

Bunny was diagnosed with cancer of the bone late last year. But instead of rolling over and playing dead, he has faced the disease like a true gladiator.

Having realised that irregular things were happening to him, “Bunny” heard the dreaded news that the deadly disease had paid him a visit. All told, he had lost close to 30 pounds in two weeks.
He did not tarry. In a jiffy, his boxing gloves were on; one of his daughters, based in New York, responded with alacrity and he jetted off to the Big Apple for treatment.

That was October last year. He spent over two months in North America before returning to his homeland to be back with wife, Joyce Desport Robinson.

Now, he is preparing to head back to the United States for further treatment, this time he expects the process to last four months.

“About five months ago the health wasn’t like how it used to be. A man 78 now does not mean that his health couldn’t be what it used to be, because I used to go to sea in the morning, still exercise, but all of a sudden the appetite gone, can’t eat, can’t move fast … nothing,” Bunny said.

“So something was wrong. It was the fourth of October last year when I found out how sick I was. I realised that there was cancer in the bone and I had to get blood transfusion and all sorts of things. The doctors in America said that if I had stayed a day or two more before I come up, I would be a dead person, based on the condition that I was in,” he said.

Bunny said that his daughter in New York, who also has her own challenges as she suffers from lupus, kept contacting him to find out if things were okay with him.

She borrowed money to pay for his airfare to the US and thus began his treatment. According to the man who turns 79 on June 6, he did not know that he was so sick, even after visiting doctors here.

“When my daughter see me at the airport, she said ‘no man, this no look like my father at all’, because by that time I had lost 30 pounds, because me naa eat a thing,” Bunny told the Jamaica Observer.

Doctors began the process of improving his condition. Treatment included chemotherapy, a process by which chemical substances are used to fight cancer cells.

A part of the revolution also included changing his diet to one that included green vegetables, porridge, foods with low or no salt, and he also was forced to cease buying food on the road.

“My wife is now following what my daughter says, because they don’t want when me go back to America it’s something else. I am going to go to America and come back and do what I do best.

“When I went into hospital in New York October I weighed 127 pounds, and when I reached back in Jamaica in December I was weighing 150. The doctors said as long as I keep the weight between 148 and 150, then I should be okay.

“I feel much better now, because when I just come back I couldn’t ride my bicycle, but now I do some riding, although not as much as before. I would ride to like downtown or Sabina Park, but no further,” Bunny disclosed.

For longer trips and visits to local doctors, his son, an employee of GraceKennedy Ltd, takes him around.

A part of the rehabilitation requires Bunny to shake off some of the workload, so now he seldom goes to football matches, to avoid excessive walking.

The cost of treating him in the US is not as expensive as it could be, as Bunny relies on some of the benefits that his daughter gets from the US Government, due to her condition.

So being realistic and living consciously are philosophies that have crept into his daily life.

“Doctors say providing I eat right and take the medication, I can live as long as God says is my time.

“I am continuing to live a positive life. I am not going to make it worry me, because the cancer is already there, so why am I going to fret and worry myself? I am just going to enjoy life until God say ‘a your time’,” he said.

His daily routine includes the swallowing of nine tablets, sometimes 10, and he also has to focus on treatment for hypertension and an enlarged prostate.

“If it wasn’t for some people who have been helping me to fund the local part of my treatment, I don’t know how I would manage. The CHASE Fund help me with the cancer treatment and some other people assist me too, although it’s not enough to cover all the medical bills, but I am grateful,” Bunny said, highlighting the high cost of the chemotherapy treatment.

Community support is always vital, and although he is not a Jones Town purist, Bunny continues to maintain the respect of all around him.

From Darling Street, West Kingston (where he was born), to Rose Lane and now Jones Town, Bunny has been regarded as an exemplary citizen.

He doesn’t drink alcoholic beverages, refrains from smoking and gambling. When he’s not selling nuts, he is inside his house by 6:45 pm to follow the day’s news and sport on radio and television and not get involved in irregular activities.

“The early years in Jones Town were nice. What taking place now, we never have that,” he said. “We had most things in Jones Town in those days — shops like now, churches, schools, doctors … the only thing we never have is a gas station.”

His early Jones Town journey was a mix of peanut vending and selling newspapers, activities that laid the foundation for him to be his own man.

Singing soon became a part of the mix, and by age 22 he was a rounded individual, partnering with Noel Simms, better known as “Scully”.

“We never used to sing as Bunny and Scully at first, we used to be named Simms and Robinson, off our last names.

“We attend the same school, go to the same club — Boys’ Town — and both of us used to sell papers.

“A man come up to Boys’ Town and said he wanted some youth to sell paper. So we sold the Gleaner first, then the Express, Jamaica Times, and Public Opinion.”

But it was mainly the peanut vending that anchored him.

“The main thing that keep me over the years is the peanut vending. It’s really the peanuts that carried me through life. I have 12 children, the youngest is 25 and the oldest 58. All of them went to school off the peanut selling. I have never said ‘a no me’ when them born… I always own up, although my father always tell me to look somewhere to put my head first, before I put my, you know what…

“I always say those who are in the country let them sell there. Peanut vendors come all the way from Montego Bay and they tell them to ask for me. Man woulda come to me and say ‘a you name Bunny? A man send me to you, boss, fi ask you how me fi sell me things’.”

Bunny has sold peanuts at events like Senior Cup cricket matches, Boys’ and Girls’ Athletic Championship, the Gibson Relays, various football matches, boxing events, among others. He stays away from netball and swimming, he said, to allow other vendors to sell without competition from him.

Along with “Scully”, he received the national honour of Order of Distinction (Officer Class) in 2004 (he credits former Prime Minister PJ Patterson for it), and continues to sing at certain shows, the most recent being last Friday at Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre.

“My sickness doesn’t really bother my singing. I had a show last Friday at Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre with Fab Five and I was supposed to sing at the Bob Marley tribute in Trench Town recently, but I waited until after 3 o’clock in the morning to perform and couldn’t wait longer,” he said.

His singing has seen him deliver his unique rendition of the National Anthem at the National Stadium twice, and at the Harbour View Mini Stadium.

To this day, Bunny insists that he made no money from singing, although he has no regrets about getting into the business in the first place.

“The thing started with a pat on the shoulder and promoters saying to me ‘well done, boy’. Nothing much changed after that,” he said.

As a strong believer in God, he is not a member of a church now, unlike his wife, but holds firm to his spiritual beliefs.

What would continue to make him happy?

“Being able to pay my medical bills and buy my tablets. Once that is done, then there is nothing to get me down. When yuh can’t buy yuh medication, then yuh feel a way, like nobody knows you,” Bunny said.