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Monday, July 7, 2025

Ronald "Andy" Benjamin, a man of the people

by

Charles Kong Soo
1732 days ago
20201010
Andy Benjamin

Andy Benjamin

Ronald Ben­jamin was re­mem­bered by the peo­ple who cel­e­brat­ed his life as a man who loved "his neigh­bour as he loved him­self" and who gave self­less­ly with­out look­ing for re­ward or adu­la­tion.

Ronald, fond­ly called "Andy" and "Ben­ji", cre­at­ed a pos­i­tive name for him­self wher­ev­er he went. He was a pil­lar at Ben­ji’s Bak­ery, Guaico Tamana Road, San­gre Grande, a 100-year-plus fam­i­ly busi­ness, and served the peo­ple in the far-flung com­mu­ni­ties where he de­liv­ered bread and oth­er good­ies with hu­mil­i­ty.

He passed away on Oc­to­ber 4, 2020, at the age of 63. His fu­ner­al ser­vice was held on Oc­to­ber 7 at the Chapel of Clive Allen Fu­ner­al Ser­vices, San­gre Grande. Ronald's chil­dren Ryan, Kris­tel and An­nelise shared in de­liv­er­ing the eu­lo­gy.

Peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty where he lived and in the ar­eas where he ex­tend­ed a hand to the less for­tu­nate were plunged in­to mourn­ing with news of his sud­den death. "Gone too soon," many said.

Ben­jamin lived to serve–in his fam­i­ly busi­ness, his moth­er (whom he pre­pared a meal for dai­ly), in his home, in his com­mu­ni­ty, and in the US Boys All Fours Club. He was a key mem­ber in the club's an­nu­al char­i­ty dri­ve where they fed and dis­trib­uted gifts to the less for­tu­nate chil­dren.

He loved hunt­ing and tend­ed to his es­tate in Caigual, which had a spe­cial place in his heart, ev­i­dent from the time he usu­al­ly spent there, amid his hec­tic work­week. No one could dis­suade him from go­ing to his es­tate, even if it was words of care that he should rest his body for a day. It was his place to un­wind and recharge; it was non-ne­go­tiable.

Gen­er­ous to a fault, he lived by the adage "Do good wher­ev­er you can, and good will fol­low you." He al­ways spoke about the joys and re­wards of giv­ing and en­cour­aged his chil­dren to do the same.

For his son, Ryan, Ronald "lived the per­fect life" car­ing for his chil­dren and fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty, and his wife Chan­dra "Mag­gie", who pledged to love him even in an­oth­er life­time and again choose him as her hus­band.

"My fa­ther lived the per­fect life. He lived three si­mul­ta­ne­ous lives, all were gen­uine, re­spect­ed and loved. Dad­dy was a fa­ther in our home, a fa­ther in every­one's home on both sides of the fam­i­ly. He was a son and every­thing to his par­ents, sib­lings and the busi­ness that he could be. Dad­dy was the same in the com­mu­ni­ty and to peo­ple we have nev­er met.

"As chil­dren grow­ing up, peo­ple would tell us that when they were small, they had noth­ing to eat at home and didn't have a cent, my fa­ther fed them, gave them some mon­ey and sent them to school. The same chil­dren my fa­ther helped are grown and still re­mem­ber his kind­ness and gen­eros­i­ty. He con­tributed to their lives and the com­mu­ni­ty while re­main­ing hum­ble.

"He learned from our grand­fa­ther Ken­neth, un­cle Trevor, who passed in Feb­ru­ary 2019, and the rest of his sib­lings."

Ben­jamin's daugh­ter, Kris­tel, said many peo­ple that passed through the fam­i­ly's bak­ery of­ten re­count­ed how Ronald was a fa­ther fig­ure to them. "He was a fa­ther fig­ure to the peo­ple who work at the bak­ery and even the fa­ther of the bride for per­sons oth­er than my­self."

Kris­tel fol­lowed in her fa­ther's foot­step 18 months ago when she made "the most dif­fi­cult de­ci­sion in her pro­fes­sion­al ca­reer" to re­sign her job and join the fam­i­ly bak­ery. "To­day I can say it's one of the hap­pi­est de­ci­sions I've made." Dur­ing that time she was able to work close­ly with her fa­ther and ex­pe­ri­ence his pro­fes­sion­al ap­proach and lev­el of ded­i­ca­tion to the busi­ness.

An­nelise, the ba­by in the fam­i­ly and known as "her fa­ther's child," spoke of his lov­ing, car­ing na­ture. "He told me, al­ways try to help some­one if you can, 'you nev­er know when you will be in a po­si­tion where you want some­one to help you.' " He at­tract­ed what he lived–peo­ple, some of them strangers, rec­i­p­ro­cat­ed by show­er­ing him with items that he nev­er had to pay for, she re­count­ed.

She said she hap­pi­ly as­sist­ed her fa­ther in sell­ing fruits from his es­tate and would be in awe by the na­ture of the man. "We would sell fruits from Caigual, 20 cit­ruses for $20, but every­one would say they got more than 20 in the bag, 25 or 30." It was her fa­ther's sim­ple way of giv­ing back to oth­ers.

Ronald will be re­mem­bered as the lov­ing son of An­cil­la and Ken­neth Ben­jamin (de­ceased), broth­er of Trevor (dec), Mona, Su­san, In­grid, Jan­ice, Derek, and Wayne. Hus­band of Chan­dra "Mag­gie, Fa­ther of Ryan, Kris­tel and An­nelise. Fa­ther-in-law of Ronald Ian Sook­lal and grand­fa­ther of Kris­t­ian. Broth­er-in-law, un­cle and friend of many.

Obituary


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