Reflecting

Yesterday I attended the funeral for murdered cabbie Youbert Hormozi. The outer western-suburbs church was filled by many personal connections, uniformed cabbies, other industry types, Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam and the media. It was a surreal experience listening to the Assyrian chanting of sacred incantations amongst an atmosphere dense with humidity, incense and grief.

From Hormozi’s family his daughter, Melina aged twenty, delivered the eulogy. It was heartbreaking to listen as she struggled to describe the father she knew, a courageous mix of tears, laughter and regret. No easy feat given the circumstances of his death.

On behalf of the few hundred cabbies in attendance, driver's Association president, Michael Jools commenced his eulogy, ‘Taxi driving is a solitary life’. This was entirely relevant as the first news reports of Hormozi’s death noted he was a lonely soul. The solitary life is a familiar and defining condition for night cabbies.

Night cabbies, as distinct from day drivers are a breed apart. We choose to spend our working hours in a netherworld inhabited by night creatures. Our relationship with passengers is a perverse co-dependency, finding us variously fearful, cheerful, indifferent or empathic. On a regular basis we engage in a reluctant goods for service arrangement, an often dangerous job someone’s got to do.

After the funeral, when the procession had departed for the cemetery, the press were done and working cabbies had wandered off, I came across a fellow driver. We both had last night off work and were in no hurry to leave.

He too drove for South-Western Cabs, Hormozi’s network and was of Lebanese heritage and around 60 years old. Of his own volition he’d constructed a banner, fashioning a heartfelt thanks to the investigating Police. This he'd positioned on the Church steps.

‘Did you know him’, I asked. ‘Not know him...’, he replied in a thick accent, shrugging his shoulders, ‘maybe I see him sometime around the ranks, you know how it is...’. Drivers occasionally see each other, sometimes chatting but rarely getting personal.

‘It’s very sad, Youbert lived by himself...’, he said. ‘But that’s night shift’, I suggested. ‘No, listen - I live by myself too but he just drive...’. ‘Same for me’, I laughed. ‘But you, me’, he insisted, ‘we have other life, go out, see friends..’. ‘Mate, I don’t go out or have many friends’, I countered, ‘I just drive and sleep, how can I’. He nodded in agreement.

Night cabbies often don’t have relationships due to the nature of our routine. Or maybe don’t want to, for who can live with someone who works all night, then is wired till dawn after driving 200-300 klms, thence finally sleep all day. Who can live with one who consciously chooses a dangerous occupation, courts social isolation, loneliness, poor health yet can’t justify that decision. ‘It’s better money - I don’t like day traffic - can’t sleep at night anyway’, we’ll plead, somewhat unconvincingly.

Many cabbies come to night driving involuntarily, thrown together by simple bad luck, poor life decisions, broken marriages, financial indulgence, various addictions. Initially the routine is seen as a way out of those problems and often is. There are definitely no distractions when programmed to drive 12 hours each night, sleep all day then repeat.

Psychological researchers may well classify this modus operandi as self-flagellation, a pattern of masochistic punishment for past deeds. But as with living alone, there is a real danger when driving nights one begins to enjoy the isolation, relishing the solitude. The older one is the more this holds. Consequently many find they can’t leave nights.

All this I considered yesterday at the funeral. Many points could be made regarding industry shortcomings but in the church it all seemed irrelevant and inappropriate. A man who still had much to give was killed whilst working at night. That was the predominate theme on which we reflected, before returning to our normal routines.

Vale Youbert Hormozi.

Comments

[Aurelius]

Hi Adrian

I think this should be spruced up for your magazine column. Excellent piece,
from a former night shifter.

[Ian]

RIP

[Major Anya]

You're right. What happened is less important at the funeral than remembering the person.

Best wishes to all drivers, who must be feeling so many things at this time.

[adrian]

Thanks Aurelius. This theme was originally intended for my Bulletin piece but I couldn't nail it last week. It was only at yesterday's funeral when I got the context right.
Ian and MA, many thanks.

[Andrew Debreczy]

Deeply thought and felt and formine,vividly expressed with precision-like prose. Love reading your stuff Adrian (most of the time).

[adrian]

Most appreciated Andrew.

[Ian]

Adrian, is it true that some good will come of all this and that his families wishes will come to reality? The late news is of new security measures for taxi drivers; true, or just the usual rhetoric? I'm ever skeptical of feel good government announcements - with good reason!

[adrian]

Ian, Some changes tighten up existing measures whilst some is rhetoric. See today's post.

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