Sto­ries by Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian was mourned be­yond par­ty lines by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) “dis­si­dents”, Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA), Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) and First Wave Move­ment.

COP leader Kirt Sin­nette yes­ter­day asked T&T to ob­serve a minute’s si­lence and prayer on the trag­ic death of Min­is­ter in the Min­istry Ed­u­ca­tion and PNM MP, who died in a fire along with two of her chil­dren at their Ari­ma home yes­ter­day. Such was the out­pour­ing on the tragedy.

A state­ment from PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings, who de­tailed her po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry, said the PNM had been plunged in­to shock and deep mourn­ing. The state­ment said, “At a par­ty lev­el, Min­is­ter Mor­ris-Ju­lian was an in­te­gral part of the PNM’s Na­tion­al Women’s League, hav­ing served in var­i­ous ca­pac­i­ties, in­clud­ing as its pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer, and most re­cent­ly, as its vice chair­man (North). She al­so served in sev­er­al port­fo­lios in both the Ari­ma and the D’Abadie/O’Meara con­stituen­cy. Lisa was a men­tor and role mod­el to many young women in the par­ty, es­pe­cial­ly those whose in­ter­est stemmed with­in the realm of lo­cal gov­ern­ment.”

Ex­tend­ing con­do­lences to Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s fam­i­ly, her friends, con­stituents, her for­mer burgess­es, and all whose lives she touched ever so lov­ing­ly and pas­sion­ate­ly, the state­ment added, “Thank you for your ser­vice, Lisa. May the an­gels wel­come you and the mem­bers of the fam­i­ly in­to par­adise. You will be ter­ri­bly missed.”

PNM’s Women’s League, chaired by la­dy vice chair­man Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, mourned the trag­ic loss of Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her chil­dren.

“Mrs Mor­ris-Ju­lian was not just a re­mark­able pub­lic ser­vant and po­lit­i­cal fig­ure but al­so a true cham­pi­on for the peo­ple of T&T. Her tire­less con­tri­bu­tions across var­i­ous sec­tors, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, left an in­deli­ble mark on our na­tion.”

The League laud­ed Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s work as Ari­ma may­or, which “was dri­ven by a deep love for her peo­ple and a de­sire to build stronger, more re­silient com­mu­ni­ties.”

The League stat­ed that af­ter be­ing elect­ed in 2020 as PNM D’Abadie/O’Meara MP, her lead­er­ship res­onat­ed with her con­stituents.

“She worked tire­less­ly to in­stil a sense of pride and be­long­ing, up­lift­ing the lives of those she served. In her role as Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, she cham­pi­oned ed­u­ca­tion­al re­forms that sought to nur­ture cre­ativ­i­ty, ex­pand op­por­tu­ni­ties for un­der­priv­i­leged schools, and in­spire a new gen­er­a­tion of lead­ers.

“She was a moth­er whose heart over­flowed with love for her chil­dren. Her fam­i­ly was the cen­tre of her uni­verse, and she poured her heart and soul in­to rais­ing them with the same un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion and pas­sion that she brought to her pub­lic ser­vice. To lose her, and her chil­dren, is a tragedy that has left a pro­found void in our hearts.”

It added, “Her kind­ness, strength, com­pas­sion, and wis­dom touched each and every one of us. She was a woman of faith, dri­ven by a bound­less love for her coun­try, her fam­i­ly, and her peo­ple. There are no words to ful­ly cap­ture the grief we feel, nor the im­mense loss we have suf­fered with her pass­ing.

“... A woman of ex­cep­tion­al grace, com­pas­sion, and ser­vice, whose im­pact on this na­tion will nev­er be for­got­ten. May her soul and the souls of her pre­cious chil­dren rest in peace. We ex­tend our deep­est con­do­lences to her hus­band Daniel, chil­dren Anya and Ix­i­ah, her moth­er Ann, her sis­ters, broth­ers, oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers and the peo­ple of D’Abadie/O’Meara.”

UNC MPs grieve

UNC Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, first among the Op­po­si­tion to ex­tend con­do­lences, said, “It’s with pro­found sad­ness that I ex­tend my heart­felt con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and friends of MP Lisa Mor­ris and her two chil­dren, whose lives were trag­i­cal­ly lost ... Words can­not cap­ture the depth of this loss, but we must come to­geth­er to com­fort and sup­port one an­oth­er as a peo­ple. My thoughts and prayers are with all those af­fect­ed. May their souls rest in eter­nal peace. Om Sadgati.”

Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la MP Dr Rai Rag­bir added, “It is with pro­found sad­ness that I ex­tend my heart­felt con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and loved ones of MP Lisa Mor­ris and her two chil­dren, whose lives were trag­i­cal­ly lost in the fire.

As a fel­low be­liev­er in Christ and col­league of MP Mor­ris, I pray for God’s com­fort, strength, and peace to em­brace her griev­ing fam­i­ly dur­ing this unimag­in­able loss. Their pass­ing is a heart­break­ing re­minder of life’s fragili­ty. I join the com­mu­ni­ty in mourn­ing and lift­ing them up in prayer. May their souls rest in eter­nal peace and rise in glo­ry,”

Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray said, “Lisa was a re­mark­able in­di­vid­ual whose life was de­vot­ed to ser­vice ..., she demon­strat­ed a stead­fast com­mit­ment to the peo­ple she rep­re­sent­ed and to the de­vel­op­ment of our na­tion. Her con­tri­bu­tions to her com­mu­ni­ty and her coun­try will be re­mem­bered with great re­spect. This tragedy has sent shock­waves across T&T. As Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment, we ded­i­cate our­selves to im­prov­ing the lives of oth­ers, and yet, it is heart­break­ing to wit­ness a col­league’s life and fam­i­ly end in such dev­as­ta­tion”.

Ca­roni East MP Dr Rishad Seecher­an said, “The pass­ing of Mrs Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her chil­dren in such a hor­rif­ic man­ner is an aw­ful tragedy and a source of im­mense grief for the na­tion. Such a dread­ful death would be ter­ri­ble for any­one. Mrs Mor­ris-Ju­lian wasn’t on­ly an elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tive and Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, but al­so a friend­ly, so­cia­ble per­son. I’ve been re­flect­ing on the sev­er­al pleas­ant con­ver­sa­tions we shared. The deaths are a star­tling re­minder of life’s fragili­ty and fleet­ing na­ture, and the need to live in har­mo­ny and be each oth­er’s keep­er. It’s a most sober­ing mo­ment for the peo­ple of T&T.”

Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles, added, “We last spoke at a func­tion two evenings ago, where she demon­strat­ed clear­ly that while we sat on op­pos­ing sides of the po­lit­i­cal di­vide, we could still be cor­dial to each oth­er, re­spect­ful of dif­fer­ent views, and gen­uine­ly—in the spir­it of Christ­mas and life gen­er­al­ly—wish the best for all God’s chil­dren.

“In Par­lia­ment’s cor­ri­dors, she was al­ways proud of her in­dige­nous her­itage and her links to the peo­ple of Ari­ma. Her con­tri­bu­tions were al­ways root­ed in facts and de­liv­ered with pas­sion yet spo­ken in a firm, qui­et­ly dig­ni­fied man­ner. One sensed she was con­sumed not with pow­er, nor glo­ry, nor the trap­pings of of­fice but ser­vice ... The news of her pass­ing and the man­ner of her death are hard to take, even for those who have much ex­pe­ri­ence with the tri­als and tribu­la­tions of life.”

T&T in sor­row—Gary, COP

NTA leader Gary Grif­fith said his par­ty joined T&T in mourn­ing the trag­ic pass­ing of Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her chil­dren.

“This pro­found loss has left T&T in shock and sor­row. The NTA re­jects any neg­a­tiv­i­ty, spec­u­la­tion, or base­less nar­ra­tives sur­round­ing this tragedy. It’s al­so dis­heart­en­ing to see some us­ing this mo­ment to push po­lit­i­cal agen­das and spread un­found­ed claims about bur­glar-proof­ing, fire ser­vice de­lays, and wa­ter sup­ply is­sues—all be­fore the facts are known. At­tempts to link Lisa’s pass­ing to pol­i­tics, spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, or agen­da-dri­ven mo­tives are dis­re­spect­ful, un­kind, ir­re­spon­si­ble and in­sen­si­tive.”

“This is a time for uni­ty, com­pas­sion and sol­i­dar­i­ty,” Grif­fith added, re­ject­ing ex­ploita­tion of the tragedy for po­lit­i­cal mileage.

“Po­lit­i­cal op­po­nents aren’t en­e­mies ... we call on all cit­i­zens to ho­n­our the lives of Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her chil­dren, of­fer­ing love and sup­port in­stead of di­vi­sion. Let’s re­flect on our shared hu­man­i­ty and stand to­geth­er as a na­tion in grief.”

COP leader Kirt Sin­nette said, “The Con­gress of the Peo­ple ex­tends its heart­felt con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly friends and ac­quain­tances of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment for the un­time­ly and trag­ic deaths ... We ask that as a na­tion, we take a minute of si­lence and bow our hearts in prayer as we ask for strength to those so be­reaved.”