Yvonne Webb

For­mer Ca­lyp­so monarch Dr Leroy Cal­liste (Black Stal­in) had a stroke on Sun­day night but is im­prov­ing quick­ly and could be dis­charged to­day or to­mor­row."He is sta­ble. He is speak­ing. He had his lunch and he is im­prov­ing very quick­ly," said Dr Anand Cha­toor­goon, med­ical di­rec­tor, San Fer­nan­do Teach­ing Hos­pi­tal.Stal­in, who cel­e­brates his 73rd birth­day to­mor­row, Re­pub­lic Day, had a mild stroke that af­fect­ed his right side.

Cha­toor­goon said Cal­liste was ful­ly con­scious, al­though a stroke could af­fect a per­son's abil­i­ty to swal­low and eat on his own."We have found a bed for him in the new teach­ing hos­pi­tal and we are do­ing every­thing to make him com­fort­able be­cause af­ter all he is one of our icons and we are cer­tain­ly go­ing to take won­der­ful and lov­ing care of him," he said.But Stal­in's wife, Pat­sy Cal­liste, is urg­ing the na­tion to con­tin­ue to pray for his full re­cov­ery.

She said her hus­band had per­formed ear­li­er on Sun­day evening at an event at the Cou­va Joy­lan­ders pan the­atre.The cou­ple live in Pleas­antville and have three chil­dren, Sha­ka, Keina and Abi­o­la.Pat­sy said: "He came back home and was ly­ing down on the bed play­ing with the grand­chil­dren. While talk­ing to the grands, he told one of them his back was hurt­ing and he asked one of the big­ger grands, Kee­gan, to rub his back.

"He con­tin­ued talk­ing and laugh­ing with them mak­ing lots of jokes."Around the same time, she said, Keina came in­to the room and saw Kee­gan star­ing at him on the bed. "Keina looked at Kee­gan and asked him what hap­pened but he did not an­swer and she turn and saw Stal­in 'kilke­tay' (lop­sided) on the bed and she called me."Pat­sy said when she rushed in­to the room, she re­alised he may have suf­fered a stroke and im­me­di­ate­ly called the am­bu­lance.She said Stal­in suf­fered with high blood pres­sure.

Yes­ter­day, Ward 10 at the new San Fer­nan­do Teach­ing Hos­pi­tal, where he is be­ing cared for, was over­flow­ing with fans con­cerned about his well-be­ing. Among them, the T&T Guardian learned, was Jus­tice Gillian Lucky.By yes­ter­day evening, vis­i­tors were be­ing re­strict­ed and nurs­es were on­ly let­ting in peo­ple whose names were on a list. Cha­toor­goon said it was up to the fam­i­ly to al­low vis­i­tors.

Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans' Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) pres­i­dent Broth­er Re­sis­tance sent best wish­es to Stal­in and said TU­CO was stand­ing by to as­sist in what ever way it could.