Birth date: Dec 25, 1933 Death date: Jun 1, 2025
Christiana “Irene” Joseph, age 91, passed away peacefully on 06/01/2025. She was born to the late Rosena and Joseph Douglas on December 25th, 1933, in Tabaquite, Trinidad, West Indies. She was married to the late Francis “Septimus Read Obituary
From Tillil Ramnarine:
I grew up in Brasso Piedra Trinidad, Irene and her family lived in Tabaquite, she was about 11 years older than me. I would see her and her siblings when they came to visit her sister Carmen in Brasso Piedra. Carmen had moved to Brasso Piedra, after she got married to Albert. They were a very close-knit family.
After Irene got married to Septi, they moved from their first home in Belmont to Laventille, in a house that they built. It was there that our relationship blossomed. Being a teenager, I used to go all over with Albert and Carmen, and this included regular visits to Irene and Septi in Laventille. They too would pay regular visits to Brasso Piedra. There we had lots of fun, picking oranges, hiking to the cocoa land – it was such a free and happy time!
I remember for Francis’ christening in Laventille, all the cooking was done at our home in Brasso Piedra, and transported down in Albert’s van. For all her thanksgivings, she came up to our home and baked bread and cakes in our dirt oven. Many carnivals were spent at their home, I would go down with Albert and Carmen, and Irene would take us to Port of Spain. That is probably where my love for the festivities began!
Some time after they moved to the USA, they found me, as we had lost regular contact. They wanted me to stay in the house that they had built in Laventille. They stayed with me when I first moved there, to make sure that I felt comfortable. And they regularly stayed with me when they came down from America! We had fun times in the little 3 room apartment! I would go to Port of Spain with her to shop for stuff to take back. And whenever she, Septi and/or Francis were going back, they loved to carry back my roti, sugar-cake, pone and curry mango.
Since she became relatively immobile, we would spend hours on the phone! Thank God for Whats App! (laugh). She was a very caring, pleasant person who had deep morals – a virtuous women! She depicted fierce loyalty – as we say in Trinidad, “if she was for you, she was for you”. She enjoyed a good joke and loved to reminisce of life in Trinidad! She loved the place of her birth.
The Joseph family has my deepest condolences. May God empower you with strength and resilience to carry on. Her memories will forever be a blessing.
The Joseph family has my deepest condolences. May God empower you with strength and resilience to carry on. Her memories will forever be a blessing.
Jacqueline Darden
