Bo­bie-lee Dixon

Beau­ti­ful! That's the most ap­pro­pri­ate word that can be used to de­scribe the cel­e­bra­tion cer­e­mo­ny of the life of Mairoon Ali at Queen's Hall, St Ann's, yes­ter­day. An al­most packed au­di­to­ri­um of fam­i­ly and friends, who came out to pay trib­ute and bid a fi­nal farewell to a trea­sured woman, were treat­ed to noth­ing short of the many colours of Ali. Among the gath­er­ing were Am­bas­sador Joan Yuille-Williams, MP for Ma­yaro, Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters, Pe­ter Min­shall and Min­is­ter of In­for­ma­tion Dr Neil Parsan­lal.

First be­ing ser­e­nad­ed by the Holy Name Con­vent Choir as they sang "Home­ward Bound", the morn­ing then pro­gressed with trib­utes com­ing from good friends of Ali–Dale Enoch, Er­rol Fa­bi­en, Pene­lope Spencer, Roy Cape All Stars, Ce­cil­ia Salazar and even Tony Hall, who texted in his trib­ute as he could not make it to the cel­e­bra­tion–all mak­ing their con­tri­bu­tions cheer­ful.

With­out "Mavis" by her side, Nik­ki Cros­by de­liv­ered the part of "Gladys: quite well, mak­ing the gath­er­ing dou­ble over with laugh­ter as she bid a hu­mor­ous farewell to the char­ac­ter of "Mavis" (played by Ali). Cros­by took time out af­ter her skit to re­mind all of the many char­ac­ters Ali took on through­out her years in the­atre. "I had to do that be­cause it hit me hard that I was say­ing good­bye to Mairoon but I was al­so say­ing good­bye to the many char­ac­ters she brought to life. So good­bye Mairoon and good­bye to all your char­ac­ters," she said.

RIGHT: A pas­sion­ate Pene­lope Spencer de­liv­ers a po­em she wrote in trib­ute to Mairoon Ali.

Just the way she liked it

Ali was a lover of our na­tion­al in­stru­ment and on hand to pay trib­ute to her was Len "Boogsie" Sharpe, who earned a stand­ing ova­tion af­ter play­ing "How Great Thou Art" on dou­ble tenors. A spe­cial, en­ti­tled "Fly Away", which was writ­ten and sung by Ter­ry Lyons in acapel­la style, was pore-rais­ing as she thanked Ali for be­ing a moth­er to her. Ali's "boys"–3 Canal–cel­e­brat­ed her mem­o­ry with two of her favourite com­po­si­tions, Il­lu­mi­na­ta and Re­al Fire This Year. The Mal­ick Folk Per­form­ers, the group with which Ali made her first stage ap­pear­ance, al­so paid trib­ute to the the­atre queen. The cel­e­bra­tion con­clud­ed with a spe­cial by Mavis John.

Keep­ing her mem­o­ry alive

As colour­ful as Mairoon Ali was, so too was the mem­o­ry of her por­trayed through her friends and fam­i­ly yes­ter­day at the cel­e­bra­tion of her life. There was no room for tears as the at­mos­phere was filled with the sweet savour of Ali's won­der­ful mem­o­ries. A beau­ti­ful per­son she was–a friend, moth­er and sis­ter to many –as de­scribed by all whose lives she touched. Mairoon Ali is gone but cer­tain­ly not for­got­ten.