Lunch with ‘Maggie’

Trotters Restaurant was the venue, and our Miss World delegate Magdalene Walcott, who officially placed  20th at that pageant, was the guest of honour. Fresh from her return home, she sat to lunch with the media on Friday December 12, albeit tired, but still glowing from her experience. She wore a simple tailored grey suit with a black shirt, while her hair was styled in its trademark curly bob. It was a light hearted affair, filled with anecdotes and good banter from Miss World franchise holder Peter Elias, who unfortunately didn’t stay to lunch; (“It’s my busiest season right now at the stores,” he said.) But he did manage to throw in his two cents on how the government should get involved with the pageant industry in a huge way, based on our many delegates’ successes. “I mean, it’s not just about beauty anymore,” said Elias. “When you think about how much work goes into sending a woman abroad to represent the country, it is staggering. At times I have had to even dip into my own pocket, but the end results have been worth it. Our girls are seen by an audience of over 2.3 billion (depending on the pageant). When you think about the scope of our international representation alone, it’s an intangible investment.”

And Walcott did represent us with aplomb, without so much as batting an eyelash. Remember that “quiet charm and beauty” that Elias spoke of? It came to the fore, not during photo shoots, or public appearances, but behind the scenes, as her chaperone Alyson Brown explained. “Well, this incident took place during a children’s tour... as you know, Miss World is more involved with charitable events and so on... Anyway, each of the delegates had a toy panda. Maggie was walking among the children and a little girl asked her about the toy, and the next thing I knew was that Maggie had given the toy to her. Now, I had seen that act take place, but later on I would find out that others had too, including a woman named Jade (she was part of the committee). She spoke to me and said, ‘Your girl from Trinidad, she is very, very beautiful you know that?’ and began to relate what she had done with her panda.

So I got Maggie aside and asked her how come she gave it away. She said, ‘The girl needed it more than I did, so I gave it to her to make her happy.’ Imagine that simple little act of kindness is what got her noticed. No shoving for a photo op, no pushy behaviour. A simple act of kindness.” Conversation flowed well into the afternoon, along with the sumptuous dishes and finger foods. “Well,” said Maggie between forkfuls of pasta, “When it came to the food in Sanya, there was a lot of fresh fruit available. One of the memories I’ll keep with me is the smells of the different dishes, lots of fish and chicken, but more fruits than anything else. Their Chinese cooking is not like what we are accustomed to here, but it’s delicious all the same.” She also talked about the many women she developed a friendship with, including her roommate, Miss South Africa. Plus, there were other activities for the women, including sport. Gym time was a necessity, and physical competition was the new test. The delegates were required to compete in other sporting events like swimming, running, etc.

“The Europeans took to the swimming events very easily,” Walcott admitted. “I knew that I was not going to fool myself and say that I was a competitive swimmer, so I left that out. (Laughter.) Those who couldn’t swim took part in the other events; I chose to run. All I was praying for was that I wouldn’t come dead last (she came third in her heat). And you know what was really sweet? Miss Holland was there with me the whole time, she wiped my forehead with a towel, she gave me water, she was so kind to me, I’ll never forget her. I had also gotten close to Miss Antigua too, we really bonded. As the competition drew closer though, all the Caribbean girls came together. It was a unique experience.” “If it’s one thing I made sure of,” Brown began, “I had packed a few goodies from home for Maggie to snack on, so she wouldn’t be too homesick. I had a suitcase filled with channa, toolum, sugar cake, and of course the vital supplies, Crix!