On behalf of the ABVMOTT fraternity and the entire Bissessarsingh family I wish to extend our deepest sympathy to the family , friends and by extension people of Arima on the recent loss of one of our National Icons Dame Louise Horne at age 109. ( source of this info Arima Community Info Resource Centre)

This story written 7 years ago when Dame Louise Horne was 100 years old ( credit dancingcocoa.com) is a beautiful tribute to this great woman who made a sterling contribution in social work in T & T.

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"Little Louise was born on Lopez Street in Arima in 1912 . She still lives there in the exact same house her grandparents owned. The furniture and furnishings of Louise's house are older than she is and still look like they did, i imagine, when she was a child. Dame Louise Horne is 100 years old. She began to teach at Arima Boys Government School right down the road from her when she was 16. She would earn $10 a month. She had the pleasure of teaching a young Aldwyn Roberts. One day instead of memorising a poem Mr Roberts wrote a sonnet about a woman of questionable character in the area. Infuriated Ms Horne sent him to the Headmaster (principal). The headmaster pardoned him saying "the boy can write."

Ms Horne sought to further her teaching career at a three year government training course in Chaguanas. It was during this time that she had a change of heart and decided to pursue nutrition.

She got accepted on full scholarship to the University of London but tragically her father had passed and she could not leave her mother home to provide for herself (women with children did not work). She was torn between leaving her mother and sister behind to study in England: this being 1938 there should have been another concern for Louise but "I wasn't bothered, you do what you had to do" and she chose to brave the journey to England (by boat) during a fresh World War.

Louise excelled in England and travelled as far as South Africa to further her studies.

She never married and returned to Trinidad to become the first female Senator in Parliament fighting for the rights of school children to receive proper nutrition at school and hospitals and single mothers to receive benefits and aid from the State. Ask Ms Horne why she never married and she would tell you plainly " I wanted to see the world, and i did that." Louise Horne was made a Dame of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II, President of the Soroptimist Club and a valued member of the Coterie of Social Workers. She still is a very busy lady who enjoys keeping her home of 100 years still looking as exquisite as the day she was born into it."