Actor and community activist Hal Greaves worked right up to the end doing what he loved best—giving back to his adopted community of Laventille.
Dawn Henry, better known as Gloria, who paired with Greaves to form the stage duo Roy and Gloria, said Greaves was planning a Christmas children’s party for Laventille when he succumbed to his illness.
Speaking to the T&T Sunday Guardian from Greaves’ Rushworth Street, San Fernando, home, yesterday, Henry said: “Hal never allowed any illness to prevent him from doing what he had to do.
“I remember in October 2015, I was driving him to Port-of-Spain for a meeting when he stopped breathing on the highway and I had to take him to Mt Hope Hospital.
“Even while he was in hospital he continued working there doing paper work and making calls.
“He continued to work up to Friday at his home; we talked for hours, planning community projects. One of them was a big children’s party on December 10 at Sogren Trace, Laventille, and he invited a pastor and his team from South.”
She said when activities came up, Greaves was a gentleman, so that if he couldn’t go physically, he would work by phone.
Henry said Greaves was the kind of man that even when he was not feeling well, he would get up and do what he had to do.
She said when people asked him how he was, he would reply he was good.
Henry said Greaves held persons in the community very close and dear to his heart.
She said they were very close partners and she thanked God for his life.
Henry said she talked to Greaves’ mother yesterday about the need to celebrate his life.
She said he had done so much and given of himself to the community.
Henry said Greaves always said something to make someone laugh. When they went to the supermarket, people would stop him and seek a response from him to make them laugh.
Greaves worked extensively with youths in the nation’s so-called hotspots.
He headed Project REASON (Resolve Enmity Articulate Solutions Organised Neighbourhoods) to help youths to stay away from crime and violence and to implement classes in literacy, life skills, civics, religious instruction and sustainable development .
On February 23, 2012, at the 29th edition of Talk Tent at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, before beginning their performance as Roy and Gloria, Henry informed the audience that Greaves had suffered a heart attack in November 2011 and the piece they were about to do was aimed at encouraging people to take better care of their health.
The duo managed to drive home the very serious, thought-provoking message in their own inimitable, funny style.