An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers

@guardian.co.tt

A com­pas­sion­ate and strong leader is how the late Dr He­len Bhag­wans­ingh was de­scribed by rel­a­tives, busi­ness groups, and politi­cians.

Bhag­wans­ingh, 83, died ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing at her Val­sayn home af­ter ail­ing for some time. All stores in the Bhag­wans­ingh’s Group re­mained closed yes­ter­day as a mark of re­spect.

Bhag­wans­ingh was the wid­ow of Hu­bert Bhag­wans­ingh, who died in 2019, and with whom she opened their first hard­ware store in Port-of-Spain, fol­lowed by many oth­er es­tab­lish­ments.

Fond­ly known as “Mrs B”, she was in­duct­ed in­to the T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce’s Busi­ness Hall of Fame in 2010 and award­ed the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T in 2011.

Wendy Bhag­wans­ingh-Lee said her moth­er’s pass­ing was a dev­as­tat­ing blow to the fam­i­ly.

“I am see­ing my mom is ag­ing but you re­al­ly nev­er ex­pect that she would, you know pass away, and then, you know, the em­pire that she’s built that the clothes that you have on your back, you know she’s re­spon­si­ble for putting all that, you know, for help­ing you out in every as­pect of your life and to have her go is a huge loss. My grand­moth­er, my moth­er, and my great-grand­moth­er are now gone,” she said.

Bhag­wans­ingh-Lee said the group’s busi­ness had slowed down quite a bit, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter the pan­dem­ic, but her moth­er did tell her and her sib­lings that they would have it a lit­tle hard­er com­pared to when she and her hus­band ran it.

“It will not be an easy road for us, be­cause the way the coun­try is now it is very hard to sur­vive. So, but we will see be­cause, you know, we are a very strong bunch, we are a very, very tight-knit fam­i­ly. And she has brought us up you know, to have no fear, you know. Once you band to­geth­er you can make it and that’s what we’ve been do­ing,” Bhag­wans­ingh-Lee said.

She ex­pressed con­fi­dence that her three sib­lings and Bhag­wans­ingh’s grand­chil­dren can con­tin­ue run­ning the em­pires, due to the teach­ings and strong up­bring­ing.

The fu­ner­al for Dr Bhag­wans­ingh is ex­pect­ed to be held on Sun­day morn­ing at the Ara­malya Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Tu­na­puna, fol­lowed by cre­ma­tion at the Wa­ter­loo Cre­ma­tion site.

Ex­pres­sions of con­do­lences came from Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley last evening.

“We re­ceived the sad news of the pass­ing of one of our stal­wart women, He­len Bhag­wans­ingh. Bhag­wans­ingh was a strong woman who made a name for her­self as a busi­ness mag­nate hold­ing her own and even tak­ing the lead in very many ar­eas which hith­er­to were the pre­serve of men,” he said.

Row­ley said Bhag­wans­ingh was an in­spi­ra­tion to many and a phil­an­thropist who be­lieved in her coun­try.

He added: “On be­half of my fam­i­ly and the Gov­ern­ment, I ex­tend my deep­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and as­so­ciates of a great la­dy who made us proud when we need­ed a hero­ine.”

Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try Paula Gopee-Scoon said: “He­len Bhag­wans­ingh has left an in­deli­ble mark on the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, not just be­cause of her busi­ness en­deav­ours, but al­so through her sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to so­ci­ety. Such com­mit­ment to busi­ness and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice should be ad­mired.”

Gopee-Scoon said over the years Bhag­wans­ingh’s busi­ness­es con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to growth and de­vel­op­ment in the com­mer­cial and man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tors, and col­lec­tive­ly, these busi­ness­es have pro­vid­ed em­ploy­ment to many.

“Bhag­wans­ingh was al­so well known for her keen sense of cor­po­rate so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and her con­tri­bu­tions to com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment. Over the years, she con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to­wards many char­i­ties in­clud­ing mak­ing ma­jor con­tri­bu­tions to di­a­betes ed­u­ca­tion, re­search, and pre­ven­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Her pass­ing is a loss to the busi­ness and na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty,” the min­is­ter said.

Op­po­si­tion MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly said in a Face­book post that Bhag­wans­ingh was a promi­nent and re­spect­ed busi­ness­woman whose con­tri­bu­tions and lega­cy in the busi­ness world will be re­mem­bered and cel­e­brat­ed for years to come.

Busi­ness groups

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The T&T Cham­ber and In­dus­try of Com­merce said in a state­ment that Bhag­wans­ingh was known as a vi­sion­ary leader and was thor­ough­ly aware of the trends dri­ving the in­ter­na­tion­al eco­nom­ic en­vi­ron­ment and with her su­pe­ri­or an­a­lyt­i­cal and prob­lem-solv­ing skills, she was able to cut to the core of is­sues.

“She will al­ways be re­mem­bered by the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty for her courage, brav­ery, pas­sion, mag­nan­i­mous per­son­al­i­ty, prob­lem-solv­ing, a de­ci­sion mak­er, com­mu­ni­ca­tor, risk-tak­er, ex­em­plar, and role mod­el in the sec­tors in which she was ac­tive,” the group said.

Cham­ber pres­i­dent, Ki­ran Ma­haraj re­mem­bered the busi­ness icon as “a pil­lar of strength and a true leader who was an in­spi­ra­tion to many.”

Am­Cham T&T recog­nised her “com­mit­ment to fam­i­ly, hard work, and build­ing suc­cess which saw her take her fa­ther’s small 20x20 foot Sea Lots store, a gal­va­nized iron shed, and turn it in­to a thriv­ing busi­ness em­pire that to­day em­ploys over 1,200 peo­ple from many parts of T&T.” 

Am­Cham said a tan­gi­ble ex­am­ple of Bhag­wans­ingh’s con­scious cap­i­tal­ism was her do­na­tion of $5 mil­lion to di­a­betes re­search to as­sist in re­duc­ing the in­ci­dence of the dis­ease in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“She touched many lives and helped thou­sands of peo­ple through­out her years in busi­ness. Am­Cham T&T is for­ev­er grate­ful for the sup­port and con­tri­bu­tions that Bhag­wans­ingh’s Hard­ware and Steel In­dus­tries Ltd has shown to our or­gan­i­sa­tion over the years and to the cit­i­zens.”

The Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce high­light­ed its ex­treme­ly cor­dial re­la­tion­ship with the late Bhag­wans­ingh and re­called that she was giv­en an award for ex­cel­lence in busi­ness at their an­nu­al Christ­mas ban­quet and awards cer­e­mo­ny.  

“We cer­tain­ly hope that her lega­cy will con­tin­ue to in­spire younger gen­er­a­tions to fol­low in her foot­steps. She has been an in­spi­ra­tion not on­ly in Trinidad but through­out the re­gion as a pi­o­neer in the busi­ness­es in which she was in­volved,” the cham­ber said.