Patricia Robinson, wife of former president and prime minister Arthur NR Robinson, has died.
Robinson, who had been ailing with Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes for several years, passed away peacefully in her sleep early yesterday morning at the family’s residence in Ellerslie Park, Maraval. She was 79 years old.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning and wife Hazel Manning visited the Robinson’s home yesterday to offer their sympathies to the bereaved family.
During the course of the day, a number of other close friends and relatives visited the family’s residence in the seemingly quiet gated community to offer their condolences and words of comfort.
Napier Pillai, who has been a close friend of ANR Robinson for over 40 years, said the former president and prime minister has been ’coping’ with the sad news. He told the Express that he spent some time with Robinson, now 82, yesterday morning and he seemed to be ’holding up well’.
’He was in good health although he was still slightly in a state of dismay. But he was not uncomfortable. He was very quiet but he smiled. He had a lot of good friends around him this morning. His doctor had been in to see him as well,’ Pillai said.
Pillai said the couple’s daughter, Ann Margaret, was also at the residence yesterday, but he said their son, David, lives in Toronto, Canada, ’and Mr Robinson was trying to reach him’.
Robinson had also led a successful career as a senior economist during her heyday and functioned in a number of capacities in public office. She was once a senior economist in the Ministry of Finance, and served on the board of directors at the Central Bank, a biographical summary prepared by the ministry of public administration and information in 1997 stated.
She also worked on a number of other special assignments as executive secretary T&T Committee on Banking and Currency and Head of the Secretariat Committee on Banking and Currency.
Robinson was also honoured with a special award for her contribution to both the establishment of the Institute of Banking and the Development of Banking in Trinidad and Tobago in November 1989.
Funeral arrangements are to be announced at a later date, an official statement issued on behalf of the family said yesterday evening.
