Michelle Loubon

When Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning is on his feet ad­dress­ing the na­tion dur­ing par­lia­men­tary ses­sions, Mar­lene Mc Don­ald, Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and Gen­der Af­fairs, nev­er es­capes the eye of the cam­era. At her of­fice at Jern­ing­ham Av­enue, Bel­mont, yes­ter­day she list­ed Man­ning as her men­tor. She said: "I have nev­er met any­one quite like him. I am still try­ing to fig­ure him out. He re­mains an enig­ma. He is not ar­ro­gant. He is a very car­ing per­son."

Her oth­er men­tor is her grand­moth­er, the late Irene Cheva­lier, who died at age 95. Mc Don­ald, born at Mose­ley Place, Laven­tille, lives in Mara­cas. She cred­its her grand­moth­er for en­cour­ag­ing her to pur­sue a sound ed­u­ca­tion. Mc Don­ald, who al­ways ap­pears im­mac­u­late­ly at­tired in pub­lic, wears brand names, like Tahari, Liz Clair­borne and Cas­par. She said: "My sis­ter shops for me in Man­hat­tan. Meil­ing dress­es me for func­tions. My styl­ist is An­tho­ny Reid.

"Meil­ing doesn't give me 'frou frou'. Not too much frills for some­one of my size. She gives me clean, clear lines for some­one of my size. An­tho­ny Reid is my styl­ist for shoes and bags. Julie at Mt Lam­bert does my hair." Mc Don­ald en­rolled in an eight-week make-up class, fa­cil­i­tat­ed by Sacha. "I learned the art of ap­ply­ing make up. At nights, you can jazz it up a bit. The ba­sic thing is to keep your­self cleansed, toned and mois­turised," added Mc Don­ald. "I have sev­er­al prop­er­ties, two homes and land in Cu­mu­to. I ac­quired those things be­fore I got in­to Gov­ern­ment. I don't owe mort­gage on any­thing. I have a swim­ming pool at one of my homes," she said.

Mc Don­ald's bi­og­ra­phy

�2 Mc Don­ald at­tend­ed teacher Stel­la Pri­vate School (now St Thomas Pri­vate School), Nel­son Street Girls' and St Fran­cois Girls' High School, Bel­mont and UWI, St Au­gus­tine.

�2 She read for a BA in eco­nom­ics.

�2 She taught POB/POA at Mu­cu­rapo Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive School. ("I will give free his­to­ry, Eng­lish and maths lessons. On week­ends, my grand­moth­er's home would be con­vert­ed in­to a mi­ni school," said Mc Don­ald).

�2 Did a year of law in Trinidad. She en­rolled at Cave Hill Cam­pus, Bar­ba­dos. There, she met Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar, who was al­so a stu­dent. ("It was nice when I went away to Bar­ba­dos. it was the first time I lived away from my grand­moth­er. I missed her dear­ly," said Mc Don­ald).