Sascha?Wil­son

The wish of a re­tired vice-prin­ci­pal was re­alised yes­ter­day, six years af­ter her death, when $.6 mil­lion was do­nat­ed to the Pres­by­ter­ian Church for the con­struc­tion of an el­der­ly home.This was the dream of Vi­o­let Vil­ma Bharath, 77, a de­vout Pres­by­ter­ian and mem­ber of the Ara­malaya Pres­by­ter­ian Church, Tu­na­puna, who left in­struc­tions in her will that a piece of land she owned be sold and the pro­ceeds be shared among her broth­er, sis­ter and the church.Bharath had no chil­dren and was nev­er mar­ried.

Yes­ter­day, her nephew and ex­ecu­tor of her es­tate, Claude Bharath, hand­ed over the cheque for $600,000 to the church at a sim­ple cer­e­mo­ny at the Pres­by­ter­ian Church of­fice,Par­adise Hill, San Fer­nan­do.Bharath, a char­tered ac­coun­tant, of Fir Tree Cres­cent, Lange Park, Ch­agua­nas, said his aunt was giv­en the land by her late broth­er Ralph Bharath who came up with the idea to as­sist the church to build a home for the age.

"Her will said to build a home for the age. That was her de­sire. She felt that so many peo­ple de­vote their life to the church, grow up in the church and when they get old they have no where to go. "We want­ed a Pres­by­ter­ian home for our el­ders. The Pres­by­ter­ian Church on­ly has one such home, the JC Mc Don­ald Home in San Fer­nan­do, but none in north Trinidad."When his aunt, re­tired prin­ci­pal of the Tacarigua Pres­by­ter­ian School, died in 2009, the fam­i­ly be­gan mak­ing arrange­ments to ful­fill her in­struc­tions as laid out in her will.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Bharath pledged to do­nate a fur­ther $100,000 from his per­son­al funds to the church when con­struc­tion be­gins."The terms of the agree­ment which we signed to­day stat­ed that the church would put the funds in a bank ac­count es­tab­lished ex­clu­sive­ly for this project. Peo­ple wish­ing to do­nate fur­ther to the home's con­struc­tion can put mon­ey in­to the ac­count."

Ex­press­ing his grat­i­tude to the Bharath fam­i­ly, Aphzal Ack­bar­ali, gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church said:

"We are very hap­py to re­ceive this be­cause we have a home for the age in south, JC Mc­Don­ald Home, and this is an op­por­tu­ni­ty for us to have one for north."Ack­bar­ali said they would re­spect Vi­o­let's wish­es to have the church built in Tu­na­puna, "some­where in that vicin­i­ty (of the Ara­malaya church). We have lands in that vicin­i­ty and al­so in Austin Street. The ex­act lo­ca­tion we are not as yet sure."He could not say when con­struc­tion will be­gin. "No def­i­nite plans have been made as yet," he added.

He said the church was aware that Vi­o­let had left some mon­ey in the will for the church, but did not know the quan­tum.Asked if the home will be named af­ter the Bharath fam­i­ly, he said the de­tails of the project were yet to be dis­cussed.