With tears in her eyes yesterday Grace Wilkes-Worsley pleaded with the person selling her father Rodney Wilkes' 1952 Olympic bronze medal on eBay to stop the sale.
Already 11 bids have been submitted ahead of Sunday's closing date for bids and Wilkes-Worsely said it was her last ditch attempt to stop the further dishonour of her Wilkes contribution to T&T.
Wilkes, who died in March 2014, was T&T’s first Olympic medalist, when he finished third in the weightlifting competition at Helsinki 1952 in Finland. The current bidding price for the medal is US$30,500.
In an interview at the T&T Guardian’s South Bureau, Wilkes-Worsley said eight medals belonging to her father were loaned to historian Louis B Homer to display in his museum at Royal Road, San Fernando. However, when Homer died in August 2013, she said the medals were sold.
She said her father lent Homer the medals but did not give it to him. Even on his dying bed, she said Wilkes was concerned over his medals.
After seeing the medal being auctioned on eBay, she said it caused her many sleepless nights and her family was being scorned as greedy people as members of the public believed they were responsible for selling her father’s medals.
“I took care of my father when he was sick and when I asked him about the medals, he said he lent them to Mr Homer and could not get it back.
“My brother went to his house three times to get back the medals and he said he was going to give it back but he never did. Daddy died in March 2014 without getting back his medals.
“This was the first Olympic medal for the country and I want to ask the guy who is selling the medal on eBay to stop because it is not Homer's own. It belongs to my family. The patriotic thing to do is stop the sale of the medals,” she said.
Recalling her childhood days, she said she held the Olympic medal in her hands and used to polish her father’s trophies. She said they too had disappeared.
Calls were made to Homer’s family but the phone was out of service.