CARING TO THE END
Ailing Shahine was concerned with getting kidney transplant for sick woman
On her dying bed, Shahine Robinson was concerned about securing a kidney transplant for a woman whose life depended on it. A tearful Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange spoke of her colleague’s satisfaction when she told her the Wednesday before she died that she would get the job done.
“While she was on her bed, she was asking me about someone for whom she and her sister were trying to assist to get a kidney transplant. She wasn’t worried about herself, she cared enough about this person,” Grange said. “I said ‘Shahine, are you OK?’ She said ‘Yes, I am fine. I just want you to look after that person’.”
Robinson, the labour and social security minister and member of parliament for North East St Ann, lost her battle with cancer on May 29. She was 66.
Two days before she died, Grange said she promised,”I am going to get that job done.” Having given her word, Grange said that Shahine reached out her hands and she held on to it.
“She said OK ... and she closed her eyes,” Grange said.
Robinson is the third member of the current House of Representatives to die in office. South East St Mary MP Dr Winston Green (2017) and Dr Lynvale Bloomfield (2019) from East Portland died in active service. This fact was not lost on opposition MP Horace Dalley.
“This
is
the
only profession, being a member of parliament, that you die in the line of duty, you die in service, and (there is) nothing (that) your family benefits from. ... We are victims of public contempt.
“If you didn’t make arrangements for yourself, all that you will get is the flag folded and handed to your wife or husband,” he said.
Dalley also called for Robinson to be made a Commander of the Order of Distinction. The honour is normally given to parliamentarians who have served 20 years. Robinson served for 19 years, having first been elected in a by-election in 2001.
MPs used Wednesday’s sitting of the House of Representatives to salute the memories of Robinson and former minister Neville Gallimore.