tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185380487791238749.post6697439066339737295..comments2024-03-06T05:40:22.737-04:00Comments on Looking for the wild: Remembering PatUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185380487791238749.post-4040481789512727712011-08-21T18:12:17.913-04:002011-08-21T18:12:17.913-04:00Bunty:
Pat had more than any of us to nurture and...Bunty:<br /><br />Pat had more than any of us to nurture and care for even as she made her art - a few thousand children, wilful, persistent, Trini children, who must all be happy for having had some time with Pat. She was the best of us.wildgirlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16357923071310746538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185380487791238749.post-21942463491860716872011-08-21T18:05:19.971-04:002011-08-21T18:05:19.971-04:00As you say, I thought it too, what a rest from all...As you say, I thought it too, what a rest from all the striving and pushing and banging her head on a rock. She must have despaired at the lot of us. I know I have often wished that I could be as public as her and AS SURE OF MYSELF. She was our spokesperson and yet she always said that she wasn't good with words. She was good with just about everything except so sensitive, her borders always open to anyone who cared to have a stab at her. Well, I am glad that she is resting from all that. <br /><br />I feel privileged to have know her. Just a month ago she "closed" the women's art show at the museum. And she said something like this: how do they do this, these women, my sisters, who have to cook, clean, wash, wipe the baby's bottom, take the children to school, mind the man, look in on the old folk and hold down a job". She praised us richly and afterwards we stood together and listened to the Minister of Culture speak empty words, while the woman who should have been in his place, overlooked and was overlooked over and over again.<br /><br />Dear old Pat. Trinidad doesn't even know what it has lost.<br /><br />Bunty.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185380487791238749.post-63228282087548827142011-08-21T17:59:41.642-04:002011-08-21T17:59:41.642-04:00When I heard the news yesterday - from Velia - I ...When I heard the news yesterday - from Velia - I hung up the phone, not wanting to know.<br /><br />Of course subsequent calls to Simon and Randall confirmed the unbearable. <br /><br />That yet another icon was gone.<br /><br /><br /><br />But this time unlike with Ellis Clarke or Allison Hennessy (who I do remember meeting, once) this was someone that I knew and who knew me.<br /><br />Someone I always admired for her ability to always put service and love of country first.<br /><br />Someone for whom the creation of beauty for its own sake was as worthwhile as the creation of beauty to teach, to touch and to enliven the soul.<br /><br />Someone equally comfortable with statesmen as with panmen.<br /><br />This was my mentor/mother-friend, who,in simply pushing me out of the vocal range that I always believed I was,having sung as a Mezzo all my life I was almost put upon to find that I was indeed a full Soprano, taught me that in life I was my only limitation and that my own voice mattered; and that trust in that voice was paramount. And that having a voice, soprano or not, was gift enough to be used for social good.<br /><br /><br />She was so instrumental in influencing my thinking around so many things.<br /><br />In retrospect I know now that I sat at the feet of a sage on those many evenings when it seemed<br />all that was happening was the passage of time in pleasant company.<br /><br /><br /><br />I remain better for her generosity of spirit and mind; and am grateful for her graciousness.<br /><br /><br />Only tonight I remembered that she wrote a recommendation for me for my MSc programme here in Jamaica and was sure to let Prof Girvan, with whom she was a friend, know that she knew me, so that he would "keep an eye."<br /><br /><br />I regret now, not calling her more often or for always thinking that "when next I am home I must go and see Pat." <br /><br />My mentor mother-friend is now gone and while the nation, I only hope, will give her the tributes that her contribution demands,of this I am sure: <br /><br />we will never see the likes of another Pat Bishop.Suzanne Charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185380487791238749.post-47087407906134524512011-08-21T14:22:53.806-04:002011-08-21T14:22:53.806-04:00I'm shocked and so sorry to hear of Pat Bishop...I'm shocked and so sorry to hear of Pat Bishop's death,....I remember her art work and the influence she had on BAHS art students and myself... I hope T&T would recognise this cultural landmark left by such a talented and outgoing personality.Christine Helenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08427807487968814538noreply@blogger.com