Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes has bid farewell and wished God­speed to the late Win­ston ‘Ex­plain­er’ Hen­ry, who passed away last week.

In an of­fi­cial state­ment is­sued on Sun­day, which be­gins with the un­for­get­table lyrics of his biggest ca­lyp­so hit, “Lor­raine”, Her Ex­cel­len­cy says Ex­plain­er has left an in­cred­i­ble lega­cy of cher­ished hits and will nev­er be for­got­ten.

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the state­ment re­leased by her Of­fice, on Sun­day…

"Lor­raine yuh bet­ter wake up

I need a jet plane to take me non­stop

I cyah stay in NY city

When there is sun­shine and pan in my coun­try"

So be­gins the im­mor­tal clas­sic com­posed and sung by the Mighty Ex­plain­er, a ca­lyp­so that every Trin­bag­on­ian of a cer­tain age can sing at least one verse and cho­rus of.

A mem­ber of the Dis­tin­guished So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go by virtue of be­ing award­ed the Hum­ming­bird Medal GOLD, Win­ston "Ex­plain­er" Hen­ry leaves us with a slew of so­ca songs by which to re­mem­ber him. And re­mem­ber him we will.

On be­half of a grate­ful na­tion and on her own be­half, Her Ex­cel­len­cy Paula-Mae Weekes ORTT, bids farewell and God­speed to Ex­plain­er on his fi­nal flight. We're con­fi­dent that pan will be jam­ming up­on his ar­rival.