Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day called on mem­bers of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and the com­mu­ni­ties served by par­ty stal­wart Vashti Sookoo to con­tin­ue her lega­cy of ser­vice.

The Prime Min­is­ter, joined by Cab­i­net col­leagues, UNC sup­port­ers, and mem­bers of the mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tion, gath­ered at the Shore of Peace, Mos­qui­to Creek, South Oropouche, to pay their fi­nal re­spects to Sookoo. She was re­mem­bered for her decades of ded­i­ca­tion to the par­ty and her com­mu­ni­ty.

Sookoo, who served as coun­cil­lor for the Re­form/Man­a­ham­bre area in the Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, died on Tues­day at the age of 60. A ser­vice un­der Hin­du rites was held at her home on Garth Road, Williamsville, fol­lowed by the fi­nal rites at the Shore of Peace.

De­scrib­ing Sookoo as “like a sis­ter,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar grew emo­tion­al dur­ing her trib­ute, call­ing her a loy­al UNC stal­wart.

“May all the bless­ings of the good Lord go with you, Vashti. You go with love in our hearts and you go to a bet­ter place. But you leave be­hind a bet­ter place be­cause you worked so hard in your com­mu­ni­ty and in your fam­i­ly,” she said. “We shall miss you, but we will for­ev­er re­mem­ber how much love you gave to us.”

The Prime Min­is­ter as­sured mourn­ers that Sookoo’s work would con­tin­ue: “Be­cause of your hard work, we will not let you down. We’ll con­tin­ue your work. All the coun­cil­lors from Princes Town, I urge you to re­mem­ber Vashti and car­ry on her good work.” She re­called that even when her seat was giv­en to an­oth­er can­di­date dur­ing a past lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion, Sookoo’s loy­al­ty nev­er wa­vered.

Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen de­scribed Sookoo as a “loy­al UNC sol­dier,” high­light­ing her ded­i­ca­tion to both the par­ty and Per­sad-Bisses­sar, as well as her ser­vice to the peo­ple.

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath said Sookoo’s lega­cy would live on in the lives she touched. “Be­ing in pub­lic life can be a very thank­less ser­vice, but Vashti did it with grace—some­times grace un­der pres­sure—al­ways with a smile, and al­ways true to her faith.”

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal re­mem­bered her kind­ness and com­pas­sion, ex­press­ing con­fi­dence that the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion would find a way to ho­n­our her mem­o­ry and con­tri­bu­tions.