Lynette Indrani Maharaj

To the legal profession of Trinidad and Tobago, Lynette Maharaj was one of its most brilliant minds and advocates. But to us, her husband and children, she was simply the best wife and mother anybody could ever have wished for.

  
Lynette died at the age of 73 in hospital in London, holding hands with her twin daughters whilst they sung to her, one of her favourite hymns, The Lord Is My Shepherd. With her last few breaths, she slipped away peacefully to God.
 
She was devoted to her entire family – not only to her husband, children and grandchildren, but to her siblings, her in-laws and her many nieces and nephews. She also went out of her way to help her friends as well as her loyal members of staff who worked with our family for decades, all of whom she considered as honorary family members. 
 
Our entire family took delight in her brilliance and her kind, caring and generous spirit. She was not born into a life of privilege. She was a self-made, independent career woman who worked throughout her life. She was the beloved daughter of parents who rose from very little and worked hard to guarantee that all of their children, especially their daughters, would have better opportunities than they did.
 
She was always exceptional. Academically, from a very young age, she excelled at school, winning a national island scholarship to study in the UK. Professionally, over the last 50 years, she distinguished herself as one of Trinidad and Tobago’s top lawyers. She is one of the country’s few women to achieve the honour of Senior Counsel. And personally, she was regarded as the matriarch of both her Parsad family and her husband’s Maharaj family. 
 
Unflappable in any crisis, she quietly got on with things that needed to be done in her usual level-headed and measured way - from 1975 when her husband was imprisoned for contempt of court when she asserted she was entitled to see him in private every day as his lawyer and to carry his meals to the prison - to more recently when she took on the estate arrangements of her mother and siblings.
 
She was especially proud of her three kind, honest and hard-working children. She took pride in their many academic, professional and personal accomplishments and she always took the time to listen to their troubles and help to solve them. 
 
The wife of one of the country’s most public figures, she never wanted any public notice. She was enormously proud of her husband’s integrity and professional success, supported his decisions and admired and esteemed him greatly. She was fiercely protective of him over their almost five decades of marriage. The worst thing anybody could have done was unfairly criticise her husband. She felt she was the only one who could have done that – whether fairly or unfairly!
 
Her four grandchildren brought great joy into her life and she relished being “Grand-mummy” showering them with millions of hugs, cooking their favourite foods and playing games with them.
 
She gave us all strength in times of sorrow, wisdom in times of crisis and was the first to throw a family party to celebrate in times of happiness.
   
May she rest in eternal peace.