If you have lived in Piarco, Caroni, and environs, you or your grandparents, may have been a patient of Dr Harry Singh.
Dr Singh, who died of oesophageal cancer on June 12, was known for his kindness, generosity, and his desire to improve people's quality of life.
Speaking to Sunday Newsday, his son, Harry Singh Jr said, 'He had such a huge presence even though he was super quiet. I think it was the combination of being a doctor and his businesses that he was able to read people very well and blend with different types of company.'
In addition to his private practice in Kelly Village, Dr Singh was county medical officer of health for both Caroni and St George East, primary care manager for the North West Regional Health Authority, as well as acting chief medical officer.
In 1995 he co-founded a pharmaceutical distribution company importing generic brand medication with the aim of helping the less fortunate get medication at an affordable price. Then, in 2003 he brought a fast food franchise to TT.
'Even after all these things he considered himself to be a doctor first. The reason is because he came from a very poor background. When they sent him to look after the cows he would dream about being a doctor. So, his parents and siblings betted on him to go to medical school. In fact, his brother started medical school and then dropped out so my father could attend because they only had finances for one person.'
Born on April 25, 1954, Dr Singh studied at University of the West Indies, Mona Campus and completed his Masters in the US. The people in his home village in Las Lomas #2 were proud that a doctor came from their community even as he started his practice in 1992 in Kelly Village.
'His whole belief was that, if you want to find yourself, you have to lose yourself in the service of others. So, he would come back home with bananas, cassava, or roti and tomato choka. Because the patients couldn't pay him, they brought him food.'
Singh Jr said his father's job was caring for people and their conditions. He saw his work as a duty rather than a job, working from Sunday to Sunday. He performed about 10,000 diabetic tests per year free of charge, and was interested in his patients' daily lives and emotional needs, spending an average of an hour with each patient.
He recalled going to his father's office for a booster shot when he was 12, after which he was put to lie down in an adjoining room.
'He was asking, 'How your grandmother going? What she doing?' Then he'll ask, 'What you eat this morning? I hope you getting your roti.' I used to be so vex! I went and told mummy, 'You know why daddy coming home so late? Because daddy doing nothing in work.'
He said even as his father was dying, he asked Singh Jr what would happen to his practice and patients.
In the weeks before he was tested, Dr Singh said he felt tired and initially thought he had a chest infection. However, on May 13, he was diagnosed with stage four cancer with a zero per cent survival rate.
'I asked him what was the most diffic
