MRS PHYLLIS Carter, widow of renowned Guyanese poet, Mr. Martin Carter, died Thursday in Trinidad following a brief illness. She was 77.

Mrs. Phyllis Carter

A retired nurse, Mrs. Carter, at the time of her demise, was a Member of the Management Committee of the Cheshire Home, as a well as a Member of the Management Committee of Castellani House, Vlissengen Road.

News of her death was received with great shock and sadness by all who knew her. In an interview with the Sunday Chronicle at her Lamaha Street home yesterday, two of her children — Howard Carter who resides in the United States, and Mrs. Sonia Dolphin, who resides in Barbados — recalled that their mother died exactly twelve years and one month after that of her husband, poet laureate, Martin Wylde Carter who died in December, 1997.

Noting that she was in good health up until Monday, January 18, when she suddenly took ill at the funeral of a family-friend at Christ Church in the city, they said that she was rushed to St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital where she spent a few days. But after her condition deteriorated, she was taken by air ambulance to Mount Hope Hospital in Trinidad on the Friday of that week.

She died at the Mount Hope Medical Complex in east Trinidad at 22:22h (10.22 pm) Thursday gone. Mrs. Carter died without a struggle, they recalled. According to Howard, they’d always felt that she was “too blessed to be stressed,” and did not deserve to die any other way.

Mrs. Carter was accompanied to Trinidad by Sonia, who hurriedly traveled here from Barbados after learning of her illness, and was later joined by her other siblings who were at their mom’s bedside when she died. This is something they feel their mother would be happy about, since they’d always been a close-knit family and shared many treasured moments.

What was noteworthy, Howard recalled, was her son-in law, Joseph Dolphin (Sonia’s husband) was in Guyana attending the said funeral Mrs. Carter did when she collapsed, and was able to relate to them that when he returned to her home after she had been admitted to Mercy Hospital that Monday night, he observed that her clock which had never malfunctioned, had stopped at 10:22 pm.

By some strange twist of fate, Mrs Carter breathed her last at exactly 10:22 pm the following Thursday, and to this day, that clock in her bedroom is still saying 10:22.

Commenting on the good times they shared while growing up with their parents, Howard and Sonia recalled that their mother was possessed of many great attributes.

They remember her as being loving, tender, caring and compassionate, and someone who practically “looked after everybody.” More than being a mother to her four biological children (Howard, Sonia,Dr. Keith Carter and Mrs Michelle Saywack), she also mothered their two cousins, Gregg VanSertima and Alison Bulkhan, who grew up with them at their upper Lamaha Street home in Queenstown.

“In fact,” Howard said, and Sonia readily agreed, “if the rest of the world could be half as good as she was, the world would be a better place.”

A great entertainer was Mrs. Carter, as her children and Ms Elfrieda Bissember, Curator of the National Gallery at Castellani House, all agreed. She did a fantastic job at entertaining her husband’s guests, and was known to open up her home to them, never discriminating on the basis of class, colour, nor creed.

‘Aunt Phil’, as she was fondly called, was also remembered as being a great cook, who was known for making the best cup cakes, which she shared with the children at the Cheshire Home where she served as a Board Member.

She also shared a great relationship with her grandchildren, and meant the world to them. One of their memorable moments of reunion, they now recall, was when Sonia’s daughter was getting married in Barbados last December. It was an appointment her grandmother could not dare miss, but the date coincided with the Christmas party for the children of the Cheshire Home. And so, being a great organizer, she arranged to have the kids’ party brought forward so as not to deny them the opportunity of feasting on her delicious cup cakes at their Christmas party.

Others who knew her well told of her humanitarian touch, and credited her with being one who gave of her time and resources to help people in need. “She had a great interest in the welfare of children, particularly the less privileged, and literally financed the education of many of the children living on the ‘Lamaha Embankment’, buying school books and other educational resources for them, or paying for extra lessons, in some cases,” one source told the Sunday Chronicle.

Ms Bissember, who was shocked at the news of Mrs. Carter’s passing, said the entire committee felt the same way she did.

Describing her as very warm, delightful and courteous, she said Mrs. Carter was a steadfast, balanced and composed person, who made a significant contribution to the Committee in an advisory capacity. She demonstrated her mettle, particularly in the area of culture, and shared much of what she had gleaned from her experience with her late husband.

At many functions held at Castellani House, and at the funeral of the late Mrs. Janet Jagan, she read poems written by him. Ms. Bissember, who repeatedly commented on Mrs. Carter’s energy, her zeal and commitment, recalled that she fell ill at a time that Castellani House was preparing to declar
e open an exhibition in collaboration with the Indian High Commission.