People scampered when gun shots rang out near the National Academy for the Peforming Arts (NAPA) yesterday originating from the 21-gun salute honouring former T&T president, Sir Ellis Clarke. People had occupied the sidewalk of the nearby Memorial Park to witness the funeral proceedings with Clarke's casket on a gun carriage move off down the street. All was quiet. The weather was cool and a gentle breeze blew across the Queen's Park Savannah.
Members of the Defence Force waited on the roadway to head the procession to the Lapeyrouse Cemetery with officers of the Police Mounted Branch ahead of the cortege. Popular flagman, Hubert Peter Diaz, stood proudly displaying the National Flag in one hand and the Vatican's yellow and white standard in the other.
Suddenly, without warning, canon-like shots broke the serenity and people panicked and scampered only to realise afterwards that it was a gun salute, an integral part of State funeral procedure. More excitement was to come. A horse from the Mounted Branch grew fractious, sending the crowd around scampering again. "Is a spirit," a man remarked soberly. "They does see thing we don't see," a woman added.
When the procession began, a woman remarked, "Well, Ellis is time to go. Is we here who have to ketch. We have to pay light bill, yuh husband beating you..." From early, a small crowd made up of school children chaperoned by their teachers and oldtimers for the most part gathered in front the Memorial Park to await the arrival of Clarke's casket again to be borne out of NAPA where the State service was being conducted. Some sat on the park lawn and took in the service on a big-screen television while others milled around on the pavement.
Some came because they knew Clarke, others because they respected him and others just to witness an historic event. Calvin Gumps, 68, of Mount Hope Road, said he was a former Ministry of Works employee who worked in the laundry, washroom and bakery of President's House and got to know the former president well. "He used to give us fruit from the garden and invite us to breakfast and lunch with him at his table. I had to be here." Roger Hume, of the Thusia Seventh-Day Adventist Church, of Laventille said he came to honour Clarke for the contribution he made to the Republican Constitution.
"Our Constitution was influenced by the American Constitution and that was influenced by Jeffersonian republicanism," Hume explained. This was a good thing because it showed that the rights and freedoms of man were derived, not from human legislation, but from God, he said. "That was what Ellis stood for."
Hare Krishna devotee, Patita Uddaran (Patrick Henry Drakes) of Longdenville walked with a bowl of flowers and a musical instrument to offer prayers for Clarke. He was not allowed into NAPA.
Clarke, Uddaran said, will reincarnate and take a higher birth if he gets flowers offered to Lord Krishna.
Snow cone vendor, Ellis St Louis, enjoying good sales in front the funeral venue, said customers had been complaining about how Clarke was being laid to rest in Lapeyrouse Cemetery like everybody else and not in the Botanic Gardens. "From the beginning all Heads of State in T&T were buried there, including the first Governor General, Sir Solomon Hochoy and the First Lady," St Louis noted.
Antonio Ryan, 30, of Debe, Penal, claimed Clarke was his godfather. "He was my godfather. He stayed for my christening." Jacquelyn Lawrence, a T&T national residing in Brooklyn, said she admired Clarke for helping to lead the country from Colonialism to Independence. Grace Wilkinson of St James, leaning on an umbrella to support an arthritic leg, knew Clarke only from television but liked how he was always smiling. Teachers, Dave Phillip and Mark Nottingham, brought the Standard Four class from the St Margaret's Boys' Anglican primary school, Belmont, and had them on the lawn watching the service on the big screen.
Keeping a strict eye on them while they dug their flags in the grass and fidgeted, Phillip said the house on the corner of Myler and Pelham Streets where Clarke grew up is opposite the school. Patrick O'Neil Cambridge from East Dry River said his cousin Ashley Coombs was Clarke's driver in the 1970s. "My wedding reception was held on the grounds of President's House," he said. When the procession got underway, most of the crowd followed.