Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

A South mas icon will be ho­n­oured to­day, as co-founder of Kalicha­ran Mas, Wendy Kalicha­ran, is laid to rest at the age of 76.

Kalicha­ran passed away peace­ful­ly on Thurs­day at her home on Har­ris Street in San Fer­nan­do.

Kalicha­ran, who won the Queen of the Band South ten times and the Na­tion­al Queen of the Band once, had been bat­tling stage four ovar­i­an can­cer since her di­ag­no­sis in June 2023.

Her daugh­ter, Ayana Kalicha­ran-Ma­hase, said de­spite more than three decades of pro­mot­ing, cre­at­ing and play­ing mas, her moth­er kept her per­son­al life pri­vate and had re­quest­ed a sim­ple fu­ner­al ser­vice.

Kalicha­ran Mas, one of the most suc­cess­ful Car­ni­val bands in the south, has cap­tured the Band of the Year ti­tle 31 times, in­clud­ing this year. Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Michelle Ben­jamin paid trib­ute on her Face­book page, writ­ing, “She was not on­ly a dec­o­rat­ed queen but al­so a men­tor, moth­er, and cul­tur­al ma­tri­arch whose in­flu­ence helped shape the spir­it of San Fer­nan­do’s Car­ni­val for gen­er­a­tions.”

“She was an ex­tra­or­di­nary woman whose life was de­vot­ed to the preser­va­tion, el­e­va­tion, and cel­e­bra­tion of cul­ture,” the min­is­ter wrote.

Ben­jamin ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the Kalicha­ran fam­i­ly, the San Fer­nan­do com­mu­ni­ty, and to “all whose lives were en­riched by this re­mark­able woman”.

The fu­ner­al will be held at 2.30 pm to­day at Susamachar Pres­by­ter­ian Church in San Fer­nan­do.