Teacher Arlene dies just hours before UWI graduation

THIRTY-FOUR-YEAR-old Arlene Shaw failed by hours to make it to the UWI Sport and Physical Education Centre to collect her certificate and trophy at the graduation function of the UWI School of Continuing Studies Friday evening. The large audience cheered enthusiastically when her name was called to receive her certificate and a trophy for General Proficiency, but this turned to groans of grief when they heard seconds later that Arlene had died some six hours before the prestigious event. Arlene succumbed to breast cancer after being on the sick list for more than a year.

A mother of one, Arlene was to have received a Certificate of Achievement in Mass Media and Communication and the President’s Tutor’s Award for placing second in her class. Her mother, who attended the function, was too distraught to walk to the platform, so the trophy and certificate were collected on Arlene’s behalf by a friend. Arlene lived at Morvant. All of some 500 recipients spoke glowingly about Arlene. A teacher at St Agnes Anglican School, St James, Arlene attended the Nelson Street Girls’ RC School and then Bishop Anstey High School, after which she embarked on a teaching career that spanned more than 16 years. But teaching was not the only discipline that filled the imagination of Arlene. Her mother, Veronica who herself was a teacher, said Arlene wanted to be involved in almost every conceivable activity.

Claiming that she was very grieved over the death of her only child, however, she said, “I feel very composed, knowing that she had a very full life and she did her best in all that she had to do.” She explained the circumstances that led to Arlene’s death. “A little over a year ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and she had an operation in September last year, followed by a second one in September this year. “After that operation, she didn’t do very well and she just kept getting weaker and the end came  Friday morning.” Satisfied that Arlene led a very full life, her mother disclosed, “She was a member of the President’s Award Scheme, flying the Trinidad and Tobago flag in a number of Caribbean islands and other far off places, including Indonesia.” Arlene was also a pannist at secondary school and visited Sweden and Denmark with a steelband. She visited Wales and London under the auspices of the President’s Award Scheme.

Arlene was also a member of the Caribbean Conservation Group and was a horse-riding member of the Mounted Branch of the Police Service. Asked why Arlene, even with all these achievements chose to take the two-year course at the School of Continuing Studies, mother Veronica said, “She was just a restless girl, always wanting to do something new.” As a teacher herself for 44 years, Veronica Shaw taught at Melville Memorial in Belmont, San Juan Government, Richmond Street AC and remained at Eastern Boys Government for 33 years before retiring.