Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Fu­ner­al arrange­ments for for­mer PNM MP Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald are still be­ing fi­nalised but mem­bers of the con­stituen­cy she once rep­re­sent­ed, Port-of-Spain South be­gins three days of ac­tiv­i­ties in her mem­o­ry from to­day.

A con­do­lence book will be opened for sign­ing at the MP’s of­fice in Port-of-Spain from to­day and to­mor­row there will be a light­ing up of one ded­i­cat­ed street from each elec­toral dis­trict in Port-of-Spain South as a show of uni­ty and recog­ni­tion of Mc­Don­ald’s work in the con­stituen­cy.

On Wednes­day there will be a memo­r­i­al ser­vice at the Port-of-Spain City Hall from 7 pm.

Mc­Don­ald, who died last Fri­day af­ter ail­ing for some time, is sur­vived by two broth­ers and a sis­ter and two nieces who live abroad but are cur­rent­ly in T&T to make the fu­ner­al arrange­ments.

Mc­Don­ald served as an MP and gov­ern­ment min­is­ter from 2007 to 2019 in the ad­min­is­tra­tions of Patrick Man­ning and Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Af­ter be­ing out of the po­lit­i­cal spot­light for some time, this year she re­sumed work with the ex­ec­u­tive of her for­mer Port-of-Spain South unit and co-or­di­nat­ed the PNM’s cam­paign in that con­stituen­cy for the Au­gust 14 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions. The par­ty re­tained all 12 Port-of-Spain seats.

Yes­ter­day, trib­utes were paid for the for­mer MP by Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion of­fi­cials.

Among them was Cou­va South MP Rudy In­dars­ingh who said, “I’m in­deed sad­dened by the pass­ing of Ms Mc­Don­ald’s she was the ‘M’ in PNM to the very end.

“She served the PNM with her fight and gus­to and punc­tu­at­ed the po­lit­i­cal land­scape with a colour­ful ca­reer of her own. When­ev­er po­lit­i­cal pi­cong or ban­ter was di­rect­ed at her dur­ing par­lia­men­tary de­bates she en­sured that thun­der would roll in full de­fence of the PNM and her gov­ern­ment.

“It’s to be par­tic­u­lar­ly not­ed she in­deed served the PNM to the end via her in­volve­ment on be­half of her par­ty in the re­cent Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions in the Port-of-Spain area. May her soul be grant­ed eter­nal rest - rest well, Ms Mar­lene.”

For­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Robert Le Hunte, who is now the ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor for the Caribbean re­gion at the In­ter-Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank (IDB), said, “Mar­lene was my col­league but more im­por­tant­ly she was my friend. Her abil­i­ty to per­se­vere and her ded­i­ca­tion to serv­ing oth­ers will al­ways be a bea­con of in­spi­ra­tion for me and for those whose lives she touched.

“Get­ting to know Mar­lene dur­ing her most chal­leng­ing times re­vealed a per­son of ex­cep­tion­al strength and an un­yield­ing de­vo­tion to her con­stituen­cy and the peo­ple of Port-of-Spain South.

“De­spite fac­ing im­mense fis­cal and men­tal chal­lenges, Mar­lene’s spir­it re­mained un­bro­ken, her de­ter­mi­na­tion un­wa­ver­ing. Many might have fal­tered un­der such weight, but Mar­lene was a fight­er through and through. She em­braced every hur­dle with grace, view­ing them as steps on her path to a tri­umphant re­turn. Her re­silience was awe-in­spir­ing.”

Le Hunte added: “In her con­ver­sa­tions with me, Mar­lene spoke of her fu­ture with a con­ta­gious ex­cite­ment, liken­ing her­self to a phoenix ris­ing from the ash­es. Her op­ti­mism, even in the face of ad­ver­si­ty, was tru­ly re­mark­able.

“Above all, Mar­lene’s self­less­ness, bound­less love and tire­less ser­vice to the peo­ple were the hall­marks of her char­ac­ter. Her com­mit­ment to mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in the lives of oth­ers will for­ev­er res­onate with me. It’s a lega­cy that will en­dure—a re­minder of her ex­cep­tion­al spir­it. May her soul rest in peace.”