Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

Ail­ing ca­lyp­so icon Kelvin Pope's (The Mighty Duke) last wish was to en­ter the 2009 Ca­lyp­so Monarch. The four-time Ca­lyp­so Monarch and for­mer Road March win­ner spent his last days in the stu­dio of his Co­corite home where he penned the ca­lyp­so, The Dy­ing Art. The song, which tells of the dy­ing ca­lyp­so cul­ture be­ing re­placed by so­ca mu­sic, is one of the many tunes Duke had be­gun writ­ing to con­test this year's Ca­lyp­so Monarch. Orig­i­nal­ly from Han­dell Road, Point Fortin, Duke, 77, who was suf­fer­ing with myelofi­bro­sis, passed away at the Eller­slie Park Pri­vate Hos­pi­tal around 1.05 pm yes­ter­day, where he had been ad­mit­ted on Tues­day af­ter com­plain­ing of feel­ing ill. His wife Re­bec­ca John-Pope, son Wen­dell and ca­lyp­son­ian Hol­lis "Chalk­dust" Liv­er­pool, were at his bed­side when he took his last breath.

"He want­ed to sing for Car­ni­val...Duke had planned to en­ter the Ca­lyp­so Monarch," his griev­ing wife said yes­ter­day as she left Guides Fu­ner­al Home in Port-of-Spain. "For hours he sat down in his of­fice writ­ing songs be­cause he was de­ter­mined to par­tic­i­pate in ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tions this year, but it was not be." En­sur­ing that he was pre­pared for the Car­ni­val sea­son, John-Pope said her hus­band had dropped off sev­er­al yards of suit­ing ma­te­r­i­al at his tai­lor in Trinci­ty. "He bought sev­er­al pieces of ma­te­r­i­al and gave it to his tai­lor...He want­ed to col­lect the suits in time for the open­ing week of the Klas­sic Ru­so tent where he was card­ed to per­form," she said.

"He want­ed to make sure that every­thing was in place for his per­for­mance."

John-Pope said hours be­fore Duke died, he was in a hap­py mood.

"He was filled with so much of hu­mour that when the doc­tor was un­able to find his vein, he told him to bring a ham­mer and nail every­one one was laugh­ing...I can­not be­lieve he is gone." As news of Duke's death spread yes­ter­day, the ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly. Chair­man of the south re­gion of Trinidad Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so Or­gan­i­sa­tion (Tu­co) Steve Pas­call ex­pressed shock over his sud­den pass­ing. Pas­call said Duke's death came on the heels of an­oth­er ca­lyp­son­ian, Clarence But­ler, bet­ter known as Sac­cha­rine who died on Mon­day. "The en­tire ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty is mourn­ing...Even though we knew he was ail­ing, we did not ex­pect his death at this time, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing Car­ni­val sea­son," he said.

"Tu­co will help in any way pos­si­ble. "

Of­fer­ing to as­sist with fu­ner­al arrange­ments, chair­man of the Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and Cel­e­bra­tions com­mit­tee, Coun­cil­lor Sean Bharath, al­so ex­pressed shock over Duke's death.

"We have lost a leg­end. The Mighty Duke con­tri­bu­tion to Point Fortin has been im­mense and in­fi­nite," he said.

Myelofi­bro­sis

Myelofi­bro­sis is a form of leukaemia af­fect­ing bone mar­row, and is most com­mon in peo­ple over 50. The con­di­tion grad­u­al­ly changes bone mar­row in­to scar tis­sue, in­hibit­ing the bone mar­row tis­sue to cre­ate new cells. Source: www.wisegeek.com