KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

As she, her min­is­ters, and coun­cil­lors joined in prayer for the fam­i­ly of Coun­cil­lor Romona Vic­tor yes­ter­day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar reaf­firmed her com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing fam­i­lies in cri­sis.

Her voice cracked as she stood be­fore mourn­ers at Irv­ing Park, Siparia, speak­ing not on­ly as a na­tion­al leader but as a woman and moth­er shak­en by Vic­tor’s death.

The Siparia East/San Fran­cique South coun­cil­lor was found dead last Sun­day along­side her hus­band, Rod­ney Ram­sumair, in what in­ves­ti­ga­tors sus­pect was a mur­der–sui­cide linked to do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. The tragedy stunned her com­mu­ni­ty and left sup­port­ers grap­pling with grief and unan­swered ques­tions.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar praised Vic­tor’s par­ents for their courage and urged the na­tion not to let Vic­tor’s fi­nal mo­ments over­shad­ow her years of ser­vice. She high­light­ed Vic­tor’s abil­i­ty to bring “smiles, hope, and love” to every­one she met, even while fac­ing her own pri­vate strug­gles.

“Her sto­ry serves as a re­minder that no one should en­dure their pain in si­lence, and help must be ac­ces­si­ble to any­one who feels un­safe. As your Prime Min­is­ter, I reaf­firm our com­mit­ment to strength­en­ing the sys­tems that pro­tect fam­i­lies in dis­tress. But the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty al­so lies with all of us—neigh­bours, rel­a­tives, friends, and every car­ing in­di­vid­ual. Let one part of her lega­cy be this: more peo­ple should reach out for help, and more of us should re­spond with com­pas­sion,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar em­braced Vic­tor’s par­ents, Fran­cis and Lau­ra, and her son Shel­don, re­call­ing a young woman shaped by deep south­ern val­ues, whose kind­ness, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and sin­cer­i­ty made her more than a po­lit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

“She came in­to my life as a child, as a kind and lov­ing per­son. Every­one who met Romona saw her jol­ly na­ture, her smile, her love for oth­ers. She is like a daugh­ter to me—hon­est, hard­work­ing, hum­ble, de­ter­mined, and full of love for oth­ers,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar added that she had en­cour­aged Vic­tor to en­ter pub­lic ser­vice be­cause of her nat­ur­al em­pa­thy and strong bond with her com­mu­ni­ty.

Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen urged the pub­lic to check on their friends, “even the strong ones.” She de­scribed Vic­tor as a pil­lar at UNC events and an un­wa­ver­ing ad­vo­cate for her con­stituents.

“Very of­ten, we look to strong women to em­u­late them, to be like them, but be­hind closed doors, every one of us is vul­ner­a­ble. We can­not take for grant­ed that a strong friend has it un­der con­trol, or that every strong woman can win every bat­tle,” Ameen said.

She al­so en­cour­aged Vic­tor’s son to ho­n­our his moth­er’s mem­o­ry.

“Let the per­son who took her life be de­feat­ed by you stand­ing up in her mem­o­ry and mak­ing her proud. Do not let that per­son have the vic­to­ry.”

PNM La­dy Chair­man Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly al­so paid trib­ute, re­flect­ing on the pres­sures unique­ly faced by women in pub­lic life.

“We all feel the loss of a young woman whose life was cut short too soon, who was do­ing her best to rep­re­sent the peo­ple she was elect­ed to serve. The chal­lenges of be­ing a rep­re­sen­ta­tive are many, and even more so when you are a woman. We salute Romona’s pas­sion and ser­vice,” she said.

Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo said the coun­cil would have sup­port­ed Vic­tor if they had known of her strug­gles.

He plans to rec­om­mend re­nam­ing Vic­tor Street, where she was born, in her ho­n­our.

He added that the coun­cil end­ed its meet­ing ear­ly yes­ter­day be­cause the grief was too over­whelm­ing.