Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

A pall of sad­ness spread over T&T and with­in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) yes­ter­day with the trag­ic death of the par­ty’s D’Abadie/O’Meara MP Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian and two of her chil­dren in an ear­ly morn­ing fire at her Ari­ma home.

Mor­ris-Ju­lian, 48, is be­ing hailed in some quar­ters as a hero for re­port­ed­ly re-en­ter­ing the burn­ing house to save one of her chil­dren. Her six-year-old son Je­si­ah and daugh­ter Xi­anne, 25, al­so per­ished in the blaze.

The fire oc­curred at Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s home at 8 Far­fan Street, Ari­ma, at 5.30 am.

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher said the bod­ies were found in sep­a­rate bed­rooms af­ter the fire was ex­tin­guished.

Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s hus­band, Daniel, was ini­tial­ly tak­en to the Ari­ma Hos­pi­tal and sub­se­quent­ly tak­en to Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, for treat­ment for first- and sec­ond-de­gree burns.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and oth­er Cab­i­net mem­bers who rushed to the scene, were vis­i­bly shak­en, some open­ly shed­ding tears.

PNM vice chair­man Camille Robin­son-Reg­is put her head back and bawled in gut-wrench­ing grief and shock, “Oh God ...!”

Col­laps­ing, Robin­son-Reg­is had to be held up by those around her.

Robin­son-Reg­is had worked close­ly with Mor­ris-Ju­lian, who was vice chair­man of the PNM Women’s League.

Al­so in tears were Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, who served with Mor­ris-Ju­lian in Ed­u­ca­tion, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and Don­na Cox. Oth­er min­is­ters present—Stu­art Young, Symon de No­bri­ga, Mar­vin Gon­za­les, Fitzger­ald Hinds, Kaz­im Ho­sein, and MP Es­mond Forde—were al­so in deep sor­row.

In a sub­se­quent state­ment on Face­book, Row­ley said, “My fam­i­ly and I are dev­as­tat­ed at the aw­ful tragedy that took the lives of Lisa and her chil­dren. We ex­tend our deep­est con­do­lences to the en­tire Mor­ris-Ju­lian clan as we join Ari­ma and the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty in com­ing to grips with this shock­ing re­al­i­ty that we have lost more than we think we can bear.

“Lisa was fam­i­ly to all of us, hum­ble and car­ing. On­ly just over 24 hours ago she and her hus­band shared the Christ­mas spir­it with a wide cross-sec­tion of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty who at­tend­ed our an­nu­al Christ­mas cel­e­bra­tion.

“To have her and her chil­dren snatched away un­der such hor­ri­ble cir­cum­stances makes to­day one of the sad­dest days of my life. The PNM has lost one of our finest rep­re­sen­ta­tives. On be­half of our mem­bers and sup­port­ers, I ex­tend con­do­lences from an or­gan­i­sa­tion in shock and tears.

“We will sup­port each oth­er and be there to pro­vide the fam­i­ly with what it takes to help them make it through the dif­fi­cult days ahead.”

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Gads­by-Dol­ly, with whom Mor­ris-Ju­lian worked, us­ing a bro­ken-heart­ed emo­ji, told Guardian Me­dia, “I loved Lisa like a sis­ter. She was a pas­sion­ate per­son who served her peo­ple with all that she had. We are sim­ply gut­ted by the enor­mi­ty of the loss. Words can­not ex­press how we feel and how deep our sym­pa­thy for her fam­i­ly runs.”

At 9.27 am yes­ter­day, a state­ment from the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­istry an­nounced Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s pass­ing.

Gov­ern­ment ex­tend­ed deep­est con­do­lences to her fam­i­ly, loved ones and con­stituents “and will keep them in our col­lec­tive thoughts and prayers.”

On whether plans are in the works for a state fu­ner­al for Mor­ris-Ju­lian, Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­istry of­fi­cials said any in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing these mat­ters will be pro­vid­ed at the ap­pro­pri­ate time.

Kam­la of­fers prayers

The trag­ic deaths trig­gered mourn­ing across po­lit­i­cal par­ty lines.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “The na­tion awoke to the hor­rif­ic news of the trag­ic pass­ing of MP Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her two rel­a­tives ear­li­er this morn­ing.

“As a col­league and as a Trin­bag­on­ian, I join with the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty in of­fer­ing my prayers and con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and friends of Lisa and her rel­a­tives.

“It is my sin­cere wish that all those whose lives were touched by Lisa and her rel­a­tives find com­fort and strength at this most dif­fi­cult time.”

Hinds: I’ve lost a friend

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Hinds said the Fire, TTPS and T&TEC au­thor­i­ties are prob­ing the in­ci­dent.

“The cause and cir­cum­stances are un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion, but what­ev­er the out­come, it will do noth­ing in terms of a re­place­ment for the bright, beau­ti­ful soul that Lisa was. Our con­do­lences go out to all. A woman in Ari­ma told me there will be no Christ­mas in Ari­ma now.”

Hinds added, “I’ve lost a friend. This was a gen­uine hu­man per­son, no airs, no false el­e­va­tions. She came from a his­to­ry of ser­vice in her fam­i­ly and car­ried on in­flu­en­tial­ly in that vein—help­ing peo­ple even in the most dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances was sec­ond na­ture to her.

“She was a gen­uine­ly hard-work­ing MP, very en­gaged with her com­mu­ni­ty, work­ing as hard to meet her own ex­pec­ta­tions and stan­dards she as­sessed were ex­pect­ed.

“She had a ‘spe­cial re­la­tion­ship’ with every­one. Our last deep con­ver­sa­tion was when she called to wish me hap­py birth­day re­cent­ly and we spoke for 25 min­utes. My con­do­lences to all her fam­i­ly be­cause if she meant so much to us, God alone know what she meant to them.

“She was one of the more com­pas­sion­ate car­ing per­sons I’ve had the priv­i­lege to know. She leaves a proud lega­cy and an ex­am­ple of ser­vice and car­ing that many will do well to em­u­late.

“We will miss her very much.”