Gail Alexan­der

The PNM Gov­ern­ment has again been plunged in­to mourn­ing with yes­ter­day’s death of long-stand­ing PNM ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber Joyce­lyn Bod­den.

Bod­den, a lead­ing fig­ure in PNM’s Port-of-Spain North con­stituen­cy, was al­so the par­ty’s wel­fare of­fi­cer on its na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive. She’s re­port­ed to have died at the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal.

Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, in a so­cial me­dia state­ment, said love was Bod­den’s mantra.

“You left your mark amongst men and women and have bro­ken all of our hearts in­to pieces, we will al­ways miss you—un­til we meet again,” he said.

Bod­den’s death fol­lows the demise of En­er­gy Min­is­ter Franklin Khan on April 17 and PN­Mites in Tu­na­puna and oth­er ar­eas who died re­cent­ly fol­low­ing var­i­ous ail­ments.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said, “I am very sad­dened by our loss of Joyce­lyn who was tak­en from us at this ter­ri­ble time. Sharon and I and the PNM fam­i­ly are deeply sad­dened by her pass­ing, but more so, be­cause we were not able to com­fort her dur­ing her pe­ri­od of dis­tress.

“Please ac­cept our fam­i­ly’s con­do­lences and know that we shared her love with grat­i­tude and are poor­er now for her pass­ing. We thank you all for shar­ing her with us and thank God for lend­ing her to us. Now that she has gone to His arms, may she rest in per­fect peace.”

Port-of-Spain North MP Stu­art Young, whose What­App pro­file pic­ture was a pho­to of him­self and Bod­den, added: “Farewell to you my dear­est Joy­cie. I thank you for the time you gave me from 2014 to now. Your love, guid­ance and con­tin­u­ous sup­port from the day you were asked to hold my hand in the par­ty and world of pol­i­tics.

“I am numb and left pon­der­ing again as the an­gels have tak­en you to be with your oth­er loved ones. You will be sore­ly missed and an­oth­er void is cre­at­ed. Thank you for all that you did for me and so many more. We love you and will miss you. RIP my dear­est Joy­cie. May God bless your soul and give your fam­i­ly and friends the strength.”

It’s an­oth­er blow for Young af­ter the Jan­u­ary death of PNM Port-of-Spain North stal­wart Don­ald “Popee” Sturge.

In a state­ment, the par­ty’s pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer Lau­rel Leza­ma-Lee Sing laud­ed Bod­den, say­ing: “Life’s most per­sis­tent and ur­gent ques­tion is: What are you do­ing for oth­ers?”–Mar­tin Luther King. Every day, Joyce­lyn Pamela Bod­den will­ing­ly and humbly an­swered that burn­ing ques­tion. Hers was a life of ser­vice, built up­on the sol­id foun­da­tion that on­ly love can pro­vide.”

She added: “The PNM has en­dured a colos­sal loss with her pass­ing. The sim­plest plea­sures in life brought Joyce­lyn the great­est of joy. Her fam­i­ly, her friends, her PNM were her world. Her pleas­ant per­son­al­i­ty was con­ta­gious, and served as a light­house to show the way and to lead to a safe space for those in need.

“Joyce­lyn Bod­den was pas­sion and com­pas­sion per­son­i­fied. She of­fi­cial­ly joined the PNM on Feb­ru­ary 1, 1990, and dili­gent­ly and faith­ful­ly served her par­ty and Port-of-Spain North/ St Ann’s West con­stituen­cy for the en­su­ing 31 years. For more than 20 years, Joyce­lyn served as the par­ty’s wel­fare of­fi­cer. Every year, she ex­e­cut­ed sev­er­al an­nu­al sig­na­ture events, in­clud­ing the chil­dren’s Christ­mas treat and the se­nior cit­i­zens lun­cheon and dance. She en­sured thou­sands of ham­pers and bags of love and good­will were dis­trib­uted across T&T. She pro­vid­ed lead­er­ship to all con­stituen­cy wel­fare of­fi­cers and of­fered coun­sel, ad­vice, a lis­ten­ing ear, and a shoul­der to cry on for any­one.”

She added: “We pray that the love of God en­folds you and car­ries you dur­ing this very dif­fi­cult time. Joyce­lyn Pamela Bod­den, sparkling gem in the crown of the PNM may the an­gels wel­come you in­to par­adise! Thank you and farewell, good and faith­ful ser­vant. Your ex­cel­lent work and ser­vice here is com­plete.”