As news spread of the death of former prime minister Patrick Manning yesterday morning, people began gathering at the San Fernando General Hospital where he had been warded since Monday. Several of them were seen crying and consoling each other.
Manning’s wife, Hazel, and son, David, were at his bedside when he took his final breath. He was unconscious because doctors had to sedate him when his condition deteriorated overnight. He was hooked up to a ventilator because he was having difficulty breathing.
At around 10.10 am the body was taken away from the hospital in a Belgroves Funeral Home hearse. Longstanding People’s National Movement (PNM) member Joan Yuille-Williams and former alderman Kennedy Fleming looked on as the hearse drove away.
“It is sad. We have lost a friend, we have lost a father, we have lost a visionary,” said Yuille-Williams
Also at the hospital was Housing Minister Randall Mitchell, MP for San Fernando East, where Manning served for 44 years.
“Members of the PNM, people of San Fernando East, people in T&T we have been plunged into mourning. We have just lost a great leader, a great man, world renowned,” he said. “We are very sad at his passing.
Dr Petronella Manning-Alleyne said her brother was very much loved and had suffered enough.
“He has done his work well as far as I am concerned. The difficulties he has had with his health in the past have been immense. He has survived and overcome all of that and I really think that for him, he is now at peace. Enough suffering, enough is enough,” she said.
PNM activist Cathleen Granger, a member of the San Fernando East Constituency who worked with Manning for several years, wept as she declared that Manning was the greatest prime minister the country ever had.
She said Sunday is her birthday and Manning had promised to spend some time with her.
Manning’s body was taken to Belgroves Funeral Home on Coffee Street, San Fernando, where it will remain until his state funeral, tentatively set for Saturday at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-of-Spain.