"He served!" That was the prevailing sentiment at the funeral service of People's National Movement (PNM) stalwart John Donaldson.Donaldson passed away earlier this week, 11 days shy of his 77th birthday. His funeral service yesterday saw in attendance many well-known PNM party members, including Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing, Diane Seukeran and Joan Yuille-Williams, to name a few. Notably absent was former prime minister and party leader Patrick Manning.
Dr Rowley was the first to speak–in fact, he was the only person to have delivered an address reminiscent of an eulogy. The family's remarks about Donaldson were shared in print on the back pages of the service pamphlet.Addressing the congregation at the St Mary's RC Church, Rowley said that from a PNM perspective John Donaldson "was a man who symbolised everything good about Trinidad and Tobago," and the "good," he observed, also extended to his family life.
Rowley said Donaldson was very involved in the things of the country, and apart from serving at many levels–Cabinet, Parliament, public service–he also "helped to build institutions" and was always mindful of actions and consequence."He had the ability to look beyond the horizon and see the consequences and to caution about actions that may lead to certain consequences. If the PNM had an umpire, it would be John Donaldson," Rowley said.
But the biggest accolade to Donaldson came from service celebrant Fr Emmanuel Pierre, who likened the former politician to the prophet Jeremiah who "warned against ultra patriotism and ultra nationalism." Fr Pierre said that while he could not say if Donaldson was familiar with the works of Jeremiah, he said it occurred to him that the two (Donaldson and Jeremiah) will get together in the realm of heaven and "speak of cities", problems and solutions, and apathy and citizens who care and those who 'coast.'
He said while they spoke, the Lord would be somewhere nearby and would say to them: "If only you had known the path to peace."He said Donaldson was committed, involved and he cared: "He was not perfect but he chose to affirm and appreciate rather than to be apathetic. When a community loses someone like him, it gets some slack at the root. We can't take his place but we can take our place and take up some of the slack," Fr Pierre said.