The following is an edited version of a tribute to Mathias Mar Fan read out at the July 1 morning Mass. The three groups which Mar Fan direct – The St Joseph’s RC Choir, JoVoice and Alpha Pan Pioneers, paid tribute in song. JoVoice did ‘Wind beneath my Wings’; Imela, Alpha Pan Pioneers did ‘One Moment in Time’/ ‘Just the way You Are’ and the St Joseph’s RC Choir performed ‘How can I say Thanks’.
Words cannot fully express all that Mathias Mar Fan means to our parish, and especially to the members of the St Joseph RC Choir, with whom he has worked for almost 40 years.
It was in 1979 that this humble, self-taught musician moved with his young family to Tobago to take up a position in the health sector. Well-meaning colleagues in Trinidad had warned him: “Tobago have plenty obeah!” but he was undaunted.