Un­able to con­tain her emo­tions Jean Ramjohn-Richards broke down in tears yes­ter­day, as she viewed the body of her hus­band and for­mer Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards at the Par­lia­ment lob­by in Port-of-Spain.

Over­come with grief, Ramjohn-Richards had to be com­fort­ed by her daugh­ter Max­ine, who put on a brave face and shoul­der of sup­port.

From at 7.30 am yes­ter­day, there was a cer­e­mo­ni­al pro­ces­sion of Richards’ body from the Old Fire Sta­tion, on Aber­crom­by Street, to the Par­lia­ment Build­ing, on Wright­son Road, which led to traf­fic grid­lock in and out of the cap­i­tal city.

Among the first to view Richards at 10.05 am was Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley who spoke briefly to Ramjohn-Richards be­fore he signed the con­do­lence book and left.

Act­ing Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and sev­er­al of her MPs all of­fered their sym­pa­thies to the wid­ow and her daugh­ter. Richards’ son, Mark, was not present.

Af­ter the dig­ni­taries left, Ramjohn-Richards walked across to his cas­ket, which was draped in the na­tion­al flag.

As she looked down at the cas­ket, she burst in­to tears.

Ramjohn-Richards was es­cort­ed out of the lob­by by Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George to an await­ing ve­hi­cle which drove off.

There­after mem­bers of the pub­lic who were wait­ing were in­vit­ed to pay their fi­nal re­spects to the for­mer pres­i­dent.

In pay­ing trib­ute to Richards, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said dur­ing her tenure as prime min­is­ter said had rea­son to call on Richards for ad­vice in­volv­ing an in­di­vid­ual who was on an in­de­pen­dent com­mis­sion af­ter there was a hue and cry about com­ments that per­son had made.

She said while some peo­ple looked at Richards as a PNM pres­i­dent, Per­sad-Bisses­sar he al­ways had a lis­ten­ing ear.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the ad­vice Richards im­part­ed to her was “you must al­ways be calm, re­flect and give due con­sid­er­a­tion.”

Oropouche MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said it would be most fit­ting to name an in­sti­tu­tion af­ter Richards for his in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to ed­u­ca­tion and coun­try, while he should be ho­n­oured for his love for cul­ture.

Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry Glen­da Jen­nings-Smith said Richards who was a reg­u­lar vis­i­tor to her To­co/San­gre Grande con­stituen­cy has left a lega­cy for our coun­try.

Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Cher­rie-Ann Crichlow-Cock­burn said we can nev­er stop thank­ing Richards for serv­ing T&T will dis­tinc­tion and ho­n­our.