Reporter
carisa.paul@guardian.co.tt
“I know you would be sad; I know you will mourn for me, but I gave everything.”
That was the message former President of the College of Science, Technology and the Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT) Dr Gillian Paul left for those who knew her, days before she died.
Friends and loved ones who celebrated her life at the St Mary’s Anglican Church in Tacarigua yesterday said those words summed up her kind nature and hard work.
“I’m eternally grateful to have had her in my life, for her love and the gift of her friendship,” her friend Liesel Gransaull-Brown said.
“God is your provider, I’m just happy he allowed me to be able to make a contribution to your growth and effort,” added another friend, Helen Cumberbatch.
Paul served as president of COSTAATT from 2012 until she retired in 2022 before that, she was the CEO from 2002 to 2004 and served as chair of the Academic Affairs Team during the college’s formation in 2000.
Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly described Paul as a giant in the field of education, a woman who built opportunities at COSTAATT for many students.
“She was an example of the best of us, she was an example of hard work and dedication,” Gadsby-Dolly said.
While the minister was there in her official capacity, she remembered how Dr Paul impacted her life, especially during her time as a senior lecturer at COSTAATT.
“I always tell people I grew up at COSTAATT and a lot of that growing up had to do with initiatives that Dr Paul would have initiated at COSTAATT, allowing for growth, allowing for development,” she said.
Gadsby-Dolly said Paul was a leader from the front, someone who even during her busy times always made time for those who came to her for advice or help.
“This is really a loss for Trinidad and Tobago but she planted so many seeds that it’s with us now to carry on her legacy of excellence, of hard work, of dedication to country and to do it all with the grace and the joy that exuded from her on every opportunity that you met her,” the minister said.
Many memories were built with people she met in her adult life but her cousin Natalie Paul said she had been an inspiration all her life.
“She was an outstanding woman, a woman of excellence, loving, caring, giving, and most of all she was selfless, she would leave herself undone just to see about others,” she said. recalling summers with her “Aunty G” who she described as the glue that kept their families together.
To further solidify just how impactful Paul’s 61 years on this earth have been to anyone she met, the COSTAATT Performing Arts sang Up Where We Belong.