Tribute to my late father for Father’s Day

My father, Melville Richards, was born on June 6, 1929, in the village of Cane-End, in the lush Marriaqua Valley. He came from a humble family background. The eldest of five children, he assisted his parents with his other siblings. This responsible attitude was one of the hallmarks of his life; even at school, his teacher admired his sense of responsibility, as shown by his willingness to get classrooms organized in preparation for academic instructions.

Father was a diligent pupil at the Marriaqua Government School. He excelled particularly in the subject areas of Maths and English, and he mastered the latter proficiently, both orally and in the written word and was successful at the school leaving examination. A young Melville Richards was encouraged by the teachers and colleagues in the Marriaqua Valley to enter the portals of the teaching profession. He opted not to, and instead chose to carve a niche for himself as a skilled labourer – an artisan. He mastered the craft of carpentry and masonry and dabbled occasionally with electricity and auto mechanics.

Before father migrated to Trinidad in June 1963, he was a local preacher at the Gospel Hall Assembly in Kingstown, a rare achievement for a black man, a working class man, congregating in a church community with a predominant middle and upper class membership.

Motorcycling was my thing – Triumph, Suzuki, Squely, etc; the name ‘Wire Key’ was bestowed upon him when he skillfully put pieces of wire together to fashion a key for a lady who had lost her original key and it stayed with him up until his death in 2014.

Melville Richards was marrried to Esalyn Richards née Mason, who predeceased him. The union produced two children, Patmos and Pedro. He had several children with various women in both Trinidad, his adoptive homeland and Grenada, and contributed significantly to the construction industries there and in his homeland St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“Son!” I could hear his booming voice at his home in Morvant, Trinidad. “Falling down was never a crime, but staying down is the crime,” adding that the adversities one encounters in life should be “a template for character building”.

I am still grateful to my late father for sharing this philosophical outlook with me.

Patmos Richards