Antonio "Sonny" Trejo Eulogy

Antonio Trejo or Pa Trey as everyone fondly called him, was born at Darceuil Lane in Belmont. He was essentially a “town boy”. When his family moved to Petit Bourg, as fate would have it, he lived next door to Mary Ahye who would later become his grandmother in law. When Dot Duchaussee went to live with her grandmother, Pa Trey literally became the boy next door whom she later married.

By the time the duchaussee’s moved to town to live Pa Trey was already a serious suitor. I am told he was a late mover. His courting hours started at 10.00 pm much to the
Consternation of his mother-in-law to be. There was an affectionate sobriquet which he earned from his future in laws and that was “lagahoo” because he would walk from Santa Cruz Old Road to Petit Bourg after courting.

Pa Trey was an affable man, he loved playing all fours, complete with all the signs and code words, and a good ole talk. There was no fatigue which you could give him for which he did not have a quick rejoiner. He loved dancing and almost everyone here would have seen his picture in the newspapers dancing with two young ladies exactly one week before his demise. Both his daughters remember him teaching them to dance from early when he would have them stand on his feet while he made the steps. He was a passionate supporter of West Indies cricket and T’dad & Tobago football and would take his children to see matches. He was meticulous, his pastelle making skills attested to this. Each pastelle was the same size and was neatly wrapped and smoothly creased like a Christmas present. He was the person charged with the responsibility to cut the Christmas ham. He used his sharp knife which he guarded jealously and his slices were of uniform thickness just as if they were cut by a machine. To his then young sisters in law, he was a fun person who was never angry and said yes to everything. They recall him taking them to see their first horror movie back in 1958 - DRACULA starring Christopher Lee, and laughing as they all huddled in the back seat of his old Austin Devon too frightened to come out to go inside the house.

Carnival was never a time to expect Pa Trey to be home early. He always had a partner who was playing a dragon mas and he had to help to paint the dragon. Within the duchaussee family the excuse “I was painting a dragon” became the excuse of choice for any late coming by all the sons and sons in law.

All of Pa Trey’s working life was spent in the motorcar parts industry and, after his retirement, he migrated to Toronto where he lived with his daughter Sandra. This did not prevent him from going about his daily life pretty much as he would have done in Trinidad but later on the effects of age and the cold weather, severly limited his mobility and kept him housebound. Like any good Trini macho man, Pa Trey experienced some frustration with this state of affairs and his return to Trinidad became inevitable. He outlived all of his siblings and today we, his nephews, in laws, neighbours and friends have gathered to say farewell. May he rest in peace.