For­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter and Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment (MP) Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald was to­day re­mem­bered as a true sol­dier of the peo­ple and some­one who gen­uine­ly be­lieved that the qual­i­ty of peo­ple’s lives could be im­proved through pub­lic ser­vice.

Dur­ing her fu­ner­al ser­vice at the Cathe­dral of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion in Port of Spain, Mc­Don­ald’s fam­i­ly called on the pub­lic to ho­n­our her life by com­mit­ting to serv­ing the peo­ple like she did. She was de­scribed as some­one who was beau­ti­ful, car­ing, gen­er­ous, kind and some­one who bright­ened the lives of all who knew her.

Mean­while Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said Mc­Don­ald was one of the few peo­ple who gen­uine­ly saw the ho­n­our in pub­lic ser­vice. Dr Row­ley re­called that Mc­Don­ald knew not on­ly the names of all her con­stituents in Port of Spain South, but their strug­gles as well. De­scrib­ing her as a very car­ing per­son, the Prime Min­is­ter said Mc­Don­ald al­ways be­lieved there was a light in peo­ple and that dark­ness was not an im­ped­i­ment.

He fond­ly re­mem­bered that as deputy PNM leader, Mc­Don­ald al­ways brought snacks to screen­ing meet­ings with the par­ty ex­ec­u­tive.

Dr Row­ley said it be­came a tra­di­tion and peo­ple came hun­gry to the meet­ing an­tic­i­pat­ing the snacks she would bring.

The Prime Min­is­ter said that was a sym­bol­ic ges­ture and re­flect­ed how Mc­Don­ald took care of the hun­gry in her con­stituen­cy.

“To­day the peo­ple of T&T are bet­ter off from the ser­vice of Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald,” Dr Row­ley con­clud­ed.

Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald will be buried at the West­ern Ceme­tery in St James. She passed away on Fri­day De­cem­ber 8.