The late Ann Marie Dasent's passion was her family. She loved her six children: Dane, Gillian, Sterling, Tracey, Patrice and Jason. But she adored her nine grandchildren: Brandon, Devin, Pierce, Sara, Reza, Meagan, Quentin, Samantha and Sabrina. "Grandchildren are the best, we have to treasure them" she would say to me in her very quiet voice.
This simple and unassuming woman did not want a eulogy. Said Patrice "we told her that we could not let her go without saying something about someone who meant everything to us - her children. She was not only our mother. She was our most loyal friend, our confidante, our companion. She was in fact our first glimpse of an Angel."
"Don't make me out to be a saint - Don't make anybody feel I was good, good" Ann Marie had requested. Her children differed. "To us, anyone whose general rule of thumb is if you have two avocados give the better one and if you have one give the bigger half - is bound to be good, good. She had a simplicity of heart and an unassuming nature. Indeed her greatest gift was her sincerity."
Ann Marie was generous to a fault and reminisces one of her dearest friends "she never ever came to my house without bringing a gift, and it was always something unusual."
After leaving St Joseph's Convent in San Fernando, Ann Marie worked as a secretary, later became an executive secretary and continued to function in administrative capacities at different points in her life. But her greatest accomplishment was the launch of her own business in later years. Yumma Yoghurt started in Ann Marie's kitchen. She was C.E.O., managing director, sales/financial manager, distributor and retailer in the business which was eventually sold when she became ill two years ago.
This woman who faced many challenges and disappointments in life, in love and in people, but never stopped loving and never lost faith, would often comment with every hurdle passed "Well I have run the Gamut!" Her love said Patrice in the eulogy "was special because it was unconditional and unrelenting. Her life would be sacrificed for ours without question." On discovering that one of her children was an insulin dependant diabetic, Ann Marie cried because it was not she who had been afflicted, and when her son, Jason, who was sightless from birth had to lose one of his eyes, she wept because they said it was impossible to give him her own.
Yet Ann Marie always faced life with faith, determination and courage. Said Patrice: "Her devotion to God and to Mary was truly amazing. It was her faith that gave her the strength to confront her illness and her death courageously and with grace. The happy and peaceful death for which she always prayed was granted her."
Patrice spoke of her mother's special relationship with from the first born to the last but "perhaps it was with Jason, our youngest brother, that her role as mother was truly exemplified. She was his lifeline.
Her complete dedication to him has made him the success he is today." And I personally went back to February 2000, and remembered the anxious look on Ann Marie's face as I started an interview with Jason in his Recording Studio, which he still manages with the greatest of ease because "the studio talks." It was not until she was sure that the interview was going smoothly that Ann Marie disappeared into her factory.
And last Tuesday, Jason did not disappoint his beloved mother as he bravely played the music for Ann Marie's funeral Mass, which made it truly a celebration of her life. But then as Jason had said at the time of his marriage two months ago, when Ann Marie was already very ill: "my mother has never, ever let me down and she will be at my wedding." So too, Jason did not let down his beloved mother as he sent her off in grand style from his keyboard.