DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

It was a bit­ter­sweet mo­ment for mem­bers of the gov­ern­ment and the Ari­ma com­mu­ni­ty when the lega­cy of late D’Abadie/O’Meara MP Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, was etched on­to the very streets she once served.

Near the heart of her beloved con­stituen­cy, a new name now graces what was once known as O’Meara Road.

Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian Boule­vard was of­fi­cial­ly com­mis­sioned yes­ter­day, serv­ing as a trib­ute to the late MP’s un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion. The cer­e­mo­ny took place on the com­pound of the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port (MOWT), High­ways Di­vi­sion, mark­ing a poignant mo­ment for those in at­ten­dance.

Ac­cord­ing to the MOWT, the up­grad­ed thor­ough­fare now in­cludes a jug han­dle at the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way and Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian Boule­vard in­ter­sec­tion for smoother turns; an ef­fi­cient round­about at the in­ter­sec­tion of Lennox Year­wood Boule­vard and Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian Boule­vard to im­prove traf­fic move­ment; a wider road­way, now ex­pand­ed to four lanes for a seam­less dri­ving ex­pe­ri­ence; and en­hanced drainage and aes­thet­ics for a mod­ern, safer, and more beau­ti­ful com­mute.

Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s hus­band, Daniel, was pre­sent­ed with a plaque and a repli­ca of the street sign.

At the cen­tre of the round­about, be­neath the gaze of loved ones, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Ju­lian un­veiled a plaque—a sym­bol of re­mem­brance and a promise that her lega­cy will en­dure.

“We con­tin­ue to talk about her. We con­tin­ue to miss her, but in nam­ing this con­nec­tor road in her ho­n­our, it is said that once you are re­mem­bered, you are not dead. And if that is so, then Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian will re­main among us and gen­er­a­tions to come,” Row­ley said, ac­knowl­edg­ing the sad­ness of the oc­ca­sion.

Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan de­scribed the cer­e­mo­ny as an emo­tion­al mo­ment.

“I am a lit­tle bit sad that Lisa is not here this morn­ing to wit­ness this mem­o­rable day for us here in Ari­ma. How­ev­er, I’m sure she will be look­ing down on us, and she will be very proud of the way the project came out,” he said

One of Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s po­lit­i­cal men­tors, for­mer PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford, wel­comed the trib­ute.

“For me, I am hap­py. I think it is a fit­ting trib­ute be­cause that was one of her ma­jor, ma­jor projects dur­ing her tenure and Lisa’s name will live for­ev­er be­cause the road has been con­vert­ed to a boule­vard, and for this, we are pleased,” he said.

The event be­gan with prayers led by Chief of the San­ta Rosa First Peo­ples, Ri­car­do Bharath Her­nan­dez. Mor­ris-Ju­lian, a de­scen­dant of the First Peo­ples, was ho­n­oured with tra­di­tion­al bless­ings.

Per­for­mances fol­lowed from var­i­ous cul­tur­al groups, in­clud­ing rhythm sec­tion One Band One Sound, a tas­sa group and the Mal­abar Sec­ondary School steel or­ches­tra. En­ter­tain­ment was al­so pro­vid­ed by the son of Lord Kitch­en­er, Ker­nal “Kitch” Roberts.

Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s fam­i­ly was vis­i­bly moved by the trib­ute, with her daugh­ter, Anya, seen weep­ing as the plaque was un­veiled. She was com­fort­ed by her fa­ther, Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley and En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young.

Mor­ris-Ju­lian died in a house fire on De­cem­ber 16, along with two of her chil­dren, six-year-old Je­si­ah and 25-year-old Xi­anne.

A re­port on the Fire Ser­vice’s re­sponse to the blaze—led by a com­mit­tee chaired by for­mer chief fire of­fi­cer Roo­sevelt Bruce—was sub­mit­ted to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty on Jan­u­ary 14. How­ev­er, the find­ings have not been made pub­lic.

The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry has al­so ini­ti­at­ed a probe in­to the fire.