EVEN as he bid his wife, Patricia Rawlins Robinson, a final farewell in Tobago yesterday, former president and prime minister, Arthur NR Robinson, still managed to take time out to deal with the crime scourge with has affected the country for the past months.

Robinson called for a turnaround of the crime menace spreading throughout the country, and his home Tobago, which was hit by two double murders over the weekend.

Robinson said as his deceased wife loved Tobago, he hoped that the people of Tobago would love themselves and help turn the crime situation around.

’Persons should not engage in the kind of activities that are now notoriously associated with Tobago. If Patricia were alive she would say ’God bless Tobago’,’ Robinson told the congregation during the funeral ceremony at the St Joseph’s RC Church in Scarborough.

He spoke of the special bond of love both had for each other. He said he and his wife also represented Trinidad and Tobago in the truest sense-he being from Tobago and she from Trinidad.

Remembering the events of July 1990, Robinson reflected on the note from his wife saying she loved him. That note was handed to him by a member of the Jamaat al Muslimeen while he was held to the floor bleeding after the insurrectionists stormed the red House in Port of Spain.

’I thought these were brutes and beasts, but when this letter was put in my hand from my wife, the thought came to me that after all, they are human,’ he said.

THA Chief Secretary, Orville London, in paying tribute to Mrs Robinson, said was an exemplar and all should be inspired by her legacy, selfless service, discipline, development to the country, and her desire to improve the quality of the lives of the people.

’Let us take a little of the life of Patricia Robinson, Patricia Rawlins Robinson, lady Patricia, mother Patricia, and let that influence our lives. As we, too, play our part in the continuing development of the island, country and the region,’ London said.

THA Minority Leader Ashworth Jack said Mrs Robinson’s life would not be easily forgotten, noting she was a wife who never overshadowed her husband, but complemented him.

’Today as we come to usher her to her resting place, it is not with sadness, but peace and joy, that says we had the opportunity to have been touched by this gracious woman,’ he said.

The body was later laid to rest at the Scarborough Methodist Cemetery.