AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

Like the flag she joy­ful­ly waved on stage, emo­tions rose and swayed in re­mem­brance, as many gath­ered to bid farewell to cul­tur­al icon Valar­ie Green.

Green, the wid­ow of the late ca­lyp­son­ian Ald­wyn “Lord Kitch­en­er” Roberts, passed away on Sep­tem­ber 19.

Yes­ter­day, at her fu­ner­al ser­vice, which was held at St Fin­bar’s RC Church in Diego Mar­tin, trib­utes poured in for the leg­endary dancer and cul­tur­al pro­mot­er.

Her son, so­ca pro­duc­er Ker­nel Roberts, gave an emo­tion­al eu­lo­gy, re­call­ing how his moth­er nev­er en­vi­sioned her­self per­form­ing along­side Lord Kitch­en­er when they first met.

At the time, she wasn’t a pro­fes­sion­al dancer, but her pas­sion for ca­lyp­so and lo­cal mu­sic was un­de­ni­able.

Kitch­en­er, cap­ti­vat­ed by her spir­it, wrote icon­ic ca­lyp­sos like Sug­ar Bum Bum and Flag­woman in her ho­n­our.

Roberts re­count­ed the many years spent at Rain­o­ra­ma Palace, the home of Kitch­en­er, that Green spent over two decades en­gulfed in a le­gal bat­tle over.

“While walk­ing down Morne Co­co Road, she met Ald­wyn ‘Lord Kitch­en­er’ Roberts. She and Kitch fell in love and shared their life to­geth­er,” Roberts said dur­ing the eu­lo­gy.

“They went on to build Rain­o­ra­ma Palace to­geth­er, the house that my sib­lings and I re­side till this day… she (Green) en­dured a 23-year-long court case to re­store Rain­o­ra­ma back to her name for her chil­dren whom she did any­thing and every­thing for. Thank­ing God, He kept her alive to see the in­jus­tice done to her cor­rect­ed.”

Her ti­tle as the “moth­er of moth­ers” went be­yond her bi­o­log­i­cal chil­dren as many in the cul­tur­al fra­ter­ni­ty were drawn to the love she gave.

Be­yond her role as a per­former and cul­tur­al ad­vo­cate, Green was al­so one of the first nail tech­ni­cians in T&T, a trail­blaz­er in a field that would lat­er be­come a thriv­ing in­dus­try. For­mer Miss Uni­verse T&T, Nicole Dy­er-Grif­fith, re­called meet­ing Green dur­ing her pageant years when Green worked as a nail tech. From that mo­ment on, Green be­came a con­stant pres­ence in Dy­er-Grif­fith’s life, sup­port­ing her through every mile­stone, in­clud­ing her re­cent health bat­tles.

“Every sin­gle day, Val would en­sure if she didn’t have a con­ver­sa­tion di­rect­ly with me, she would leave a voice mes­sage every sin­gle day,” Dy­er-Grif­fith said.

Dur­ing the ser­vice, De­stra Gar­cia per­formed CeCe Winan’s Good­ness of God, as gospel was one of the many gen­res of mu­sic Green con­sumed.

Al­so in at­ten­dance were so­ca artistes Farmer Nap­py, Machel Mon­tano and Pe­ter C Lewis. For­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds and for­mer Diego Mar­tin Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Sigler Jack was al­so among the many at­ten­dees.

While Green’s chil­dren ear­li­er raised con­cerns of al­leged mal­prac­tice which led to her death, no men­tion of this was made at the ser­vice, which re­mained fo­cused on cel­e­brat­ing Green’s life.

Of­fi­ci­at­ing priest Dea­con Derek Wal­cott ac­knowl­edged that while Green’s ab­sence will be deeply felt, her lega­cy of kind­ness, gen­eros­i­ty, beau­ty, and faith would con­tin­ue to in­spire. In ho­n­our of Green, and with no­table ca­lyp­so­ni­ans like Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters in the con­gre­ga­tion, Dea­con Wal­cott de­liv­ered an ex­tem­po as part of his homi­ly, a fit­ting trib­ute to the cul­tur­al icon who had touched so many lives.

“She flag for Kitch­en­er, yes that is true, but she flag for she chil­dren, for me and for you. Not just on the stage, not just in the band, but flag­ging for jus­tice with love in she hand… San­ti­man­i­tay.”