At 72, when most people are enjoying their retirement, Zita Phriday-Lewis is preparing to walk across the stage and receive her Master of Science in Organisational Management. In August 2027, she will graduate—nearly a decade after earning her Bachelor’s degree at 65.
Her return to the classroom follows 50 years of prioritising everyone else’s dreams, needs, and survival ahead of her own—and she wouldn’t have it any other way. “As I grew older, I felt a calling to return to my studies, not for recognition, but for personal growth and to better serve others,” she tells WE. “It is about purpose, fulfilment, and alignment with God’s direction for my life.”
To truly understand her determination, you have to look back to the kitchen in Guayaguayare where she grew up. In a family of six, life was defined by very humble beginnings. Her brother often walked five miles to school barefoot. Her father struggled to find steady work, and even the most basic needs felt uncertain from one day to the next.
Their hardship was perhaps most clear on the day a bailiff arrived at their home to repossess the stove—right while her mother was in the middle of baking bread.
“Watching it being taken away was so painful,” she recalls. Her father rushed to the nearby Chinese shop and borrowed money to pay the debt. They ate bread that night, but the experience never left her. It shaped her into the mother and businesswoman she would later become.
Entering the workforce at 20, she joined a venture that proved her family’s resilience. The Eastern Group of Companies had its roots in Eastern Divers Company Limited (EDCL), founded by her brother, the late Lewis Phriday. He had built a path from those difficult early years to business ownership, and Zita joined him as a Director in 1975.
Decades of dedicated professional service followed. In an industry where women hold fewer than 20 per cent of leadership roles, Zita defied the odds in 2004 when she founded Eastern Emergency Response Services Limited (EERSL). Under her leadership as Managing Director and later Chief Executive Officer, she grew the organisation into a major player in the tough, male-driven oil and gas field.
The work is demanding and volatile. It involves diving, marine support, oil spill response, and emergency medical services with National Registry Paramedics. The company also provides Fire, Rescue, HAZMAT, and Dispatching Services—operations that require discipline, technical expertise, and an unwavering commitment to safety.
Breaking into these spaces called for real thick skin. She’s still amused when she remembers the client who walked in, saw her, and asked in surprise, “Are you the person in charge of this company?” She answered, “Yes I am, your humble servant.”
Zita grew EERSL into a 200-person powerhouse in one of the country’s toughest sectors. It was a true family undertaking: her husband Arnold served as Operations Manager, her brother Lester as Project Manager, and her sister Andra as HR Manager. Those earlier years of making long trips from Guayaguayare to Port-of-Spain for meetings, often with her husband and children in tow—helped build the company from the ground up.
Not long ago, she handed leadership over to her son, Dwight—a moment that meant everything to her, especially after his fall a few years ago that left him paralysed. “It was one of the most painful periods of my life,” she says. She felt like giving up, but he told her, “Mommy, continue what you are doing. Continue your schoolwork. I will be fine.”
Dwight’s appointment marked the continuation of a legacy built on faith, hard work, and perseverance. “It was also comfortable for me because from pregnancy, my son has been exposed to the business right up to the present. I wanted to see him succeed and benefit from my guidance,” she says.
This Mother’s Day, Zita hopes at least one woman reading this finds the courage to hold on a little while longer. She advises: “Life will bring disappointment, hardship, and times when you feel like stopping. But you must keep climbing. Stay close to God, because without Him, the journey becomes much harder. My father always said, ‘Perseverance seldom fails.’ Do not give up.”
She has lived every word.
