A woman of many “firsts” and a person of great fortitude.
That’s how friends and family members remembered former PNM MP and Senate President Dr Linda Savitri Baboolal who died early yesterday at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. She was 78.
Baboolal had been warded at the hospital for the past three weeks, being treated for pneumonia. However, her political colleagues were shocked to learn of her death yesterday.
“She and Patrick Manning would now be opening their own political party up there, (in heaven),” her husband Michael told Guardian Media yesterday.
Manning, who died in July 2016 from acute blood cancer, launched Baboolal’s political career with the PNM where she served as Barataria/San Juan MP, the first female Senate President and the first woman to act as T&T’s President. She was also the PNM’s first female chairman.
Her husband Michael, who is also a doctor, was with the couple’s five children yesterday. He explained that Baboolal had gotten the flu three weeks ago and it had worsened.
“She had shortness of breath and an X-ray showed she had pneumonia. She was taken to Mt Hope but it didn’t help. Even when she was intubated and given oxygen, she deteriorated,”
“They also did a tracheotomy to help her breathe, but that didn’t work either as her lungs had been impacted by the virus. This must have strained her heart also. It’s a huge loss, but she made her mark with us all—family and country, God rest her,” he said.
A tracheotomy is an incision in the windpipe surgically made to relieve an obstruction to breathing.
Siparia-born Baboolal was the eldest of five girls and a boy for her parents Solomon and Sylvia Mohan. She followed her childhood dream to become a doctor, attending Manitoba University and also training at the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians in Ireland.
She and her entire family at one time had been resident in Ireland where her husband was also doing his medical training. They had five children, three girls and two boys.
Baboolal started off her medical career in T&T as an intern at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Politically, she was first approached by the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR)—when that party was being formed—to be one of their election candidates. She considered it but declined due to time constraints.
In 1991, she was again approached to be a candidate, this time by Manning’s PNM, and she accepted. Baboolal won the Barataria/San Juan seat, entering the Cabinet (1992- 1995). She served at various points as Health Minister and Social Development Minister
She lost Barataria/San Juan in the 1995 general election to the UNC’s Dr Fuad Khan. When the PNM was in Opposition, Baboolal was the party’s chairman from 1996 to 2000. However, when the PNM returned to Government in 2002, Baboolal was elected Senate President, serving until 2007.
Post-politics, she was active as a medical doctor and continued doing voluntary work towards better health in T&T. She also had a special interest in the promotion of women in all aspects of life, especially decision making. She was also actively involved in charitable organisations, especially with the drug addiction rehabilitation centre at Mount St Benedict.
In September 2017, at age 76, Baboolal had triple by-pass surgery at Mt Hope. She told Guardian Media then, in her usually strong voice, that she didn’t have a heart attack but had surgery to prevent the possibility. She said she was feeling alright and was taking it easy.
Baboolal was a very proud parent and grandmother of 11. All of her children—including those from abroad—were with her when she died early yesterday. One of her sons, Raj, grieved about his final goodbye, stating in a Facebook post, that his mother died at 4.44 am.
Her husband said her funeral will likely be next Wednesday since some grandchildren are coming from abroad.
Apart from being an avid reader with an interest in cooking and travelling, the late Dr Baboolal had also enjoyed posting information, photos, sayings and other snippets on her Facebook page. Her daughter Maggie Patience confirmed her pastime.
One piece the late Dr Baboolal posted on August 20 was a poem of remembrance attributed to US poet David M Romano, If Tomorrow Starts Without Me.
Known on social media as a poem meant to comfort loved ones after a person dies, the verses end, “ So when tomorrow starts without me, Don’t think we’re far apart, For every time you think of me, I’m right here, in your heart. “