Prime Minister Patrick Manning signs the condolence book of Astra Da Costa, chief executive officer of local advertising giant, Ample, during her funeral service held at the St Finbar’s RC Church at Morne Coco Road, Diego Martin, yesterday. PHOTO: SHIRLEY BAHADUR

Astra Da Costa was eulogised as someone whose life exemplified purpose and responsibility—attributes which her long-time business partner and friend Alfred Aguiton said may be the answer for this society that is “searching everywhere for the answers to our challenges.”

The final moments of Da Costa—chief executive officer of local advertising giant Ample, were recalled yesterday by her close friend and business partner of some 37 years. Delivering the eulogy at the funeral service for Da Costa at St Finbar’s RC Church, Morne Coco Road, Diego Martin, Aguiton said that this sense of purpose and responsibility meant that T&T “must not just step up to the plate, but we must make the plate our own. Take responsibility for the very plate.” This sense of responsibility, according to Aguiton, means “that if, for instance, we are in the private sector, instead of carping and harping about the Government not being effective and efficient, we should accept the call to serve—on national boards and in national institutions and at national projects.” And Da Costa accepted the call to serve—finding the time to chair at the board of Queen’s Hall and serve as the Rotary district governor for the Caribbean region. Among those in attendance were scores of Rotary members, members of the Queen’s Hall fraternity and hundreds of friends, family members, employees past and present, as well as Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his wife Local Government Minister Hazel Manning who were friends Da Costa.

Also attending the service were past and present members of Cabinet. Da Coata, who was hospitalised for 19 days, died just two months shy of her 63rd birthday. She was also chairman of Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s. Aguiton, who was at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) moments before Da Costa’s death, said before she passed away she endured three episodes of cardiac arrests. According to Aguiton, doctors said Da Costa’s lungs were in an “awful state” of pulmonary fibrosis and she was “not likely to pull through.” “And it was not swine flu,” Aguiton stressed. Peering at Da Costa through a glass door at the hospital, Aguiton recalled: “Her eyes were open, looking up at the ceiling, not because it was the obvious place she could look, but because she was obviously starting to see something. “While the ventilator attached to her lungs went about breathing her, she was dignified and composed,” he said. Shortly after, the doctor informed relatives and close friends that Da Costa had not made it. “The doctor simply opened his hands and said, ‘We tried our best,’” Aguiton said. “But little did he know he was also speaking for Astra because she also tried her best. “When we were taken back to see her, her eyes were closed and we could feel a state of grace around us.”

Aguiton also testified to Da Costa’s extraordinary business capabilities, saying she did things “exceptionally well.” He also had a few choice words for a newspaper, regarding a story that was published two days after Da Costa’s death. Saying that he would not contaminate the memory of Da Costa with the “effluence of egregious error,” Aguiton said: “The normal challenges of a business—from Wall Street to Chacon Street—have no business in being mentioned in the same breath as the traumatic death of a member of that business, especially when she has been responsible not for problems but for solutions.” Aguiton said that at least five attorneys have offered their services, but he has told them: “Please...The mills of justice and journalism grind slowly and, I am sure, grind well.” Glowing tributes were also made by several of Da Costa’s weeping relatives who unanimously described her as an extraordinary woman who would be extraordinarily missed.