Sis­ter Phyl­lis Wharfe, a re­cip­i­ent of the Medal of Mer­it Gold for her work Ed­u­ca­tion and the Em­pow­er­ment of Women, died yes­ter­day morn­ing at the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal in To­ba­go.

She had been ail­ing for some time and had been too ill to at­tend the Na­tion­al Awards cer­e­mo­ny on Re­pub­lic Day.

In­stead, on Sep­tem­ber 27, Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes pre­sent­ed her with the medal at her hos­pi­tal bed­side.

Sis­ter Phyl­lis, who had been re­ceiv­ing dial­y­sis treat­ment for some time, had been di­ag­nosed with end-stage re­nal fail­ure in 2006.

The for­mer Prin­ci­pal of St Joseph’s Con­vent, San Fer­nan­do, where she served for over a decade, went on to teach at var­i­ous schools in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Pri­or to her ill­ness, she was di­rec­tor of the SJC Re­treat and Holis­tics De­vel­op­ment Cen­tre in Scar­bor­ough and was re­spon­si­ble for the con­ver­sion and retro­fitting of the for­mer St. Joseph’s Con­vent Pri­vate Sec­ondary School in­to a res­i­den­tial cen­tre and con­fer­ence fa­cil­i­ty.