“Patrick Manning was my first and only love. Would you believe it?”
These were the words from former education minister, Hazel Manning, yesterday as she opened up for the first time since her husband’s death to give snippets of the life they led away from the public glare, even as thousands turned out at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA) to say farewell to him.
Speaking to reporters at SAPA, Manning said she first met her husband at a Carnival fete at Royal Hotel, San Fernando. With a smile playing around her lips and her eyes masked by dark shades, Hazel recalled her husband’s pickup line as he looked at her for the first time many years ago.
“He told me ‘You must be Venus!’ and I in my innocence said, ‘Venus? Who is Venus?’” she recalled.
Roman mythology, a subject which Manning studied at Presentation College, San Fernando, identifies Venus as the goddess of love, beauty, sex, fertility, prosperity, victory and desire. Hazel said they were both teenagers still in school when they met for the first time.
Admitting to being attracted to Manning’s caring ways, Hazel said they spent many years liming together as a group before their relationship became serious and they got married in 1972.
“What I remember best about Mr Manning in his younger days is the fun. When we just got married, it was fun... we had lots of fun times,” she said.
Hazel said Manning loved to dance, a trait she has previously identified since his death last Saturday.
“As a friend reminded me, we would be partying a lot. We enjoyed going out as young couples, getting into a lot of fun activities, parties and then it became serious. We had two children,” she added.
At home with Patrick
Admitting that it was difficult raising her sons while Manning was in public life, Hazel said she did her best to manage her family. Many times when things needed fixing in the home it was up to her to fix them, she revealed.
“I remember saying, ‘Patrick the fridge and the stove isn’t working.’ He would say, ‘You go and fix the fridge and stove and I will fix the country,’” she recalled with a laugh.
Saying the labour was always divided in that way, Hazel said despite the limitations everything always got done.
“We managed well. That is where my management skills came in. The children also pitched in,” she added.
She said after Manning suffered the stroke in 2012, his demeanour changed.
“I think in the last three years, when he had the stroke, he became different. It was really a different Patrick, He was very calm, very quiet and very reflective. He kept trying to put in place things that he could not do back then. He spent a lot of time with the children, so you know good things happened along the way,” she said.
Hazel said her dear husband was good both as a politician and a family man.
“He was a politician in the day and a very good family man behind closed doors.”
Asked whether she regretted having to share her husband with the country, Hazel said not at all.
“He loved his country. That was certain,” she revealed.
Hazel said she also loved her husband because he always showed concern for humanity.
“I was attracted to him because he was caring and loving. The Patrick that we know... the Patrick that his sisters would talk about, the Patrick that close friends would talk about, is a different Patrick to the one the public would know.
“Our friends will tell you that he would spend a whole night laughing and liming and the next day you would see him with a serious face and the people will say that is not the same Patrick who was liming and laughing last night,” she added.
Great sense of humour
Hazel also said she would miss her husband’s sense of humour.
“In serious times, he would come home and laugh over incidents. He didn’t take things deep and become bitter or angry. This was something I loved about him.
“If something was wrong he would deal with it, not in a nasty way. When you met him again it would be as though nothing happened. He let bygones be bygones and he moved on,” she added.
Of the overwhelming outpouring of love and respect for Manning since his death, Hazel said she was not surprised since his one piece of advice was to always love your country.
“If you look at the people who are coming and going you will see all ages and all races. People respected his love for country and the desire to see the country do better.”
She said she knew her husband would be watching over his family and friends.
Manning died last Saturday after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. He retired from politics in 2015 after serving as MP for San Fernando East for 44 years. He served as prime minister for three terms.