PATRICIA ANN D’COSTA AS I REMEMBER By Kevin Nazareth The Lord is my Shepherd there is nothing shall I want. Me and my siblings Arnold, Donna, Rodney, Jeremy and Nigel were blessed when our Uncle and Aunt, Iggy and Stella D’Costa bought happiness to our lives on April, 15th, 1974, with our cousin Patricia Ann D’Costa. Having only one girl in Gerry and Maureen Nazareth’s family, Donna Maria, who was 17 years at the time, it was a dream to have another girl in our family, and we grew up with the thought to love her forever. We were a close knit family and our Uncle Iggy and Aunty Stella would bring Patricia to our house at 117’s every Sunday after mass, and we would fuss over her, and my younger brothers Rodney, Jeremy and Nigel who used to wait eagerly for the piggy back rides on Uncle Iggy’s back, got out of the habit and used to fight as who will carry Patsy or Patti as we got to call her, there would be parties, birthdays, anniversaries, we used to visit each others house, looking forward to again fuss over Patsy. We had some wonderful times with her, and she would just wait for the next party or picnic to happen. As time went by and we all got tied up with the formalities of life, having lost my mother in childhood, my father also followed her into eternal rest, then Patsy’s mother Stella passed away, and her father survived until the age of 76, he looked after Patsy like no other father will ever do. He was also like a father to the six of us, always giving us good advice and cheering us along the hard path of life. Patsy was a healthy, fun loving and a very friendly child, but at a very young age, she was struck will an illness that would never make her walk again, countless doctors and specialists were approached, and she even went through an operation on her legs, but it was the will of the Lord, that she ride her wheel chair. Uncle Iggy was a very religious person, and he never gave up faith in the Lord, there was never a Sunday that he would give up mass whatever the circumstances were, and would always ask us to pray for Patsy. His prayers worked and Patsy received her Holy Communion, Confirmation, and completed her schooling like a normal child. She made many friends and was very talented with whatever she did, she started helping her father by taking tuitions at home, and occasionally wrote beautiful poetry for the Christian Voice. As we all got married and had our wives and children, Patsy’s family grew, and they all loved her very much, Jeremy’s wife Jenny, Nigel’s wife Theresa and my wife Doreen all became her pal’s, and they would always be there when ever she needed help, also my son Kevin Junior’s wife Melissa. My brother Rodney was like a Godfather to her and they were very close. She became best friends with my wife Doreen and they would talk for hours on the phone. She was Godmother to my niece Jana, and was very proud of Jana’s sister Jade and brother Jerry, who loved her very much. My role in her life was like a big brother to her, and a paramedic to her father and herself whenever required. But she made one very good friend in Patrick Gomes who looked after her to the day she left us. Patrick will always be on my list of Champions, as he did not lose hope in her, and she in him. After a long bout of sickness, where she lay on her bed in pain, Patsy bid us farewell on July 7th 2011, at 5:16 in the evening. It was a peaceful end to a very peaceful and loving girl, we will love her forever. As she said “The Lord is my Shepherd there is nothing shall I want”