KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

A car crash weeks be­fore the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion left Dr Gre­go­ry Bisses­sar with in­juries that still af­fect his walk­ing, his wife, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, re­vealed yes­ter­day.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar ad­dressed the long-run­ning ques­tion of his ab­sence from her side at the Siparia Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion an­nu­al Di­vali cel­e­bra­tion at the Siparia Con­stituen­cy Of­fice in Pe­nal last night.

“Many peo­ple keep ask­ing where he is. Gre­go­ry can­not join us tonight.”

The crash hap­pened a few weeks be­fore the elec­tion as they were head­ing to San­gre Grande, when an­oth­er ve­hi­cle col­lid­ed with the cou­ple’s car. The Prime Min­is­ter said the in­juries have not dimmed her hus­band.

“His great spir­it and im­mense brain­pow­er re­main strong.”

The dis­clo­sure came af­ter a re­li­gious cer­e­mo­ny and a pro­ces­sion from Clarke Road to the of­fice. Cab­i­net min­is­ters, a may­or, re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion and state board chair­men, coun­cil­lors, na­tion­al awardees, per­ma­nent sec­re­taries and devo­tees walked with her in a fes­tive re­li­gious show­case.

At the podi­um, she de­liv­ered a very pub­lic mes­sage to her hus­band.

“Gre­go­ry, thank you for your courage, your pa­tience and your un­wa­ver­ing love. I could not have made this jour­ney with­out you.”

She called him her rock and a steady light through the de­mands and dif­fi­cul­ties of pub­lic life.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was shar­ing the fam­i­ly mat­ter be­cause many in the au­di­ence were car­ing for some­one they love. She turned to the Holy Ra­mayana, re­call­ing how Si­ta and Lak­sh­man ac­com­pa­nied Ra­ma in­to for­est ex­ile while his broth­er Bharat held the king­dom in trust for his re­turn. Their love, she said, was ex­pressed in the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties they car­ried for one an­oth­er.

“Cher­ish those who stand be­side you through hard­ship.”

The love that sus­tains fam­i­lies, she added, al­so strength­ens the com­mu­ni­ties they be­long to.

Re­flect­ing on her per­son­al jour­ney, she point­ed across the road to the Pe­nal Mar­ket, where, as a lit­tle girl, she stood be­side her grand­moth­er, whom she called Aagie, sell­ing bo­di and oth­er veg­eta­bles to help the fam­i­ly make a liv­ing. She said she nev­er imag­ined she would one day stand across from it as Prime Min­is­ter, cel­e­brat­ing Di­vali with the chil­dren and grand­chil­dren of the peo­ple who helped raise her.

She said her Gov­ern­ment must re­pay that debt in ser­vice. Re­li­able wa­ter, ac­ces­si­ble health­care, prop­er­ly main­tained roads, ed­u­ca­tion and op­por­tu­ni­ties to earn, she said, are the foun­da­tions of se­cure fam­i­ly life, and the Bud­get and the work of Min­istries must serve that pur­pose, es­pe­cial­ly in com­mu­ni­ties that have wait­ed longest. She al­so pledged ac­tion against crime, cor­rup­tion and ne­glect.

It has been 31 years since she first be­came the area’s Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment and 29 years since the Di­vali tra­di­tion be­gan.

“You will have my ser­vice, my strength and my heart to the end of my days.”

The As­so­ci­a­tion, which has host­ed the func­tion for 29 years, ho­n­oured sev­er­al res­i­dents. Awardees in­clud­ed crick­eter Am­ri­ta Ram­ta­hal, foot­baller Dar­rel Gar­cia, seam­stress and teacher Carmi­na Ho­sein, pub­lic ser­vant Vi­jai Bridglal and agri­cul­tur­al­ist De­nesh Tar­soo. Stu­dents Au­rea Ma­habir, Dev­ina Do­dal, Kadir Chung and Kavir New­ton were al­so recog­nised.