Last rites for true patriot

She was married to Reverend Ethelbert Samaroo for 56 years and was the mother daughters, Wendy and Arlene. In 2012, on the 50th anniversary of this country’s Independence, Mahase-Samaroo told Newsday that the National Anthem was chosen in the small village of Guaico, Sangre Grande, where she was still living in her parents home.

She had been invited to be a member of a Committee appointed to select the Anthem. As Chairman of the Committee, the late Helen Mae Johnson, founder of the Biennial Music Festival and Queen’s Hall, divided the music from scores of entrants, giving each one of them a small pile to take home and select the best for final presentation to the overall Committee.

The late Pat Castagne’s music was in Mahase-Samaroo’s file. “I played them all,” she said, “and just knew immediately that Castagne’s entry was the one. I called the entire household to come and listen to the National Anthem of Trinidad and Tobago and played it for them.” At the final meeting of the Committee, the Chairman asked Mahase- Samaroo to play all the selections from the sub-committees who explained: “It really was from the beginning the anthem, it was so majestic. I did not write it but I selected it and the others agreed it was the best...Castagne had really written this anthem for the formation of the Federation of the West Indies which fell through...Castagne submitted it, which would explain his thoughts of ‘side by side we stand islands of the blue Caribbean Sea’ but it worked well for us as we are islands of the blue Caribbean.” At the Church service last Saturday, beautiful music for this extraordinary musicologist filled the air. She had once said in an interview with this writer: “Music is a great part of my life!” The St Augustine Girls Alumnae Chorale, which she formed in 1984 and remained as director up to the time of her passing, fittingly serenaded their late Choir Mistress as her body was borne out of the church with the song, “Thank You For The Music.”