Family and Friends Remember Jizelle - Pt 1
Pages: 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5
TriniView.com Reporters
Recorded: January 07, 2009
Posted: January 19, 2009
On January 4th 2009, World Boxing Champion Jizelle Salandy was pronounced dead at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital following a vehicular accident on the Beetham Highway on the outskirts of Port of Spain.
Born Joenette Giselle Ifi Toby on January 25, 1987, in Siparia south Trinidad, Jizelle Salandy was the third and last child of Selwyn Toby and deceased Maureen Salandy-Toby. After the death of her mother, Jizelle Salandy was legally adopted by Curtis Joseph, changing her name to Jizelle Joseph. Her name was later (unofficially) changed for the third time back to Salandy. Jizelle Salandy's boxing career started at the tender age of eleven and ended at the young age of twenty-one as the number one female light middleweight boxer of all time. She departed as an undefeated world-class female boxing champion.
On January 7th 2009, hundreds of people turned up at the St. Benedict R.C. Church, La Romaine to pay their last respect at the funeral service for Jizelle followed by her interment at the Siparia Public Cemetery where her mother is also buried.
Triniview.com spoke with some people who were eager to share their memories of Jizelle:
SYBIL DANIEL: I always liked to watch her fight. She impressed me and I know that she would have gone further. Everybody enjoyed her fights, like myself, because I used to stay up at nights and look at the fights. No matter what time, I would always leave what I am doing to look at her fights and I would say later when she gets older she would be much more mature and she would be able to speak to the kids that are coming up today. We all enjoyed the show.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you think it is important that we remember her?
SYBIL DANIEL: All the time. I wouldn't forget her because I always loved her speed... very, very good.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Did you know her personally?
SYBIL DANIEL: I saw her once but I knew her mom. I got to know her mother by going by my grandmother... that was years ago and we happened to talk. Jizelle wasn't born as yet. I know one or two of the family [members]. At the time when I met her mother, we always used to talk and so on, but then when I saw Jizelle I said, "But wait, I know Jizelle's mom." One or two times we used to meet and talk. But the Lord knows best. Maybe this is her time... nobody knows. But I am so sorry to know that it happened this way. That is all I know about Jizelle.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
KENDRA PRIME: I think Jizelle made a great impact on Trinidad and most young girls; even myself. I think there should be public day to reminisce on her life. I think she affected young girls a lot and she is a positive aspect to Trinidad.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What inspired you the most about her?
KENDRA PRIME: She never gave up even though she was young and she couldn't get into the boxing thing but she still went through with it and she was successful even to her death.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
GRAFTON YOUNG: Jizelle grew up around me and she grew up a very nice child; very obedient. Jizelle was always a nice and happy girl and she liked sports. She went to Fyzabad Senior Secondary School. After the death of her mother, a friend of mine named Curtis Joseph supported her to the balance of her life. She was always a nice and contented child growing up. She liked football and all kinds of sports. She grew up a very loving and charming child to everyone around the neighborhood.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you think that it is important for the nation to remember her?
GRAFTON YOUNG: Yes. She died but her thoughts will still live on. She contributed a lot to Trinidad. She raised Trinidad on the world map.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
LUCILLE VENTOR: I think her contribution was very great. She is a woman I have admired since I know her doing her boxing. It is very sad that we have to lose her in such a manner.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What inspired you most about Jizelle Salandy?
LUCILLE VENTOR: Boxing night; it was something else out of this world. I know she was doing it for a while, but Boxing night... oh boy! That was the greatest I think she ever did.
TRINIVIEW.COM: How do you think Trinidad and Tobago should remember her?
LUCILLE VENTOR: There are so many things they could do to remember Jizelle. I am so emotional, I don't know what to say.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you have any last words you would like to share?
LUCILLE VENTOR: I would like to extend my condolences on behalf of my husband and my children to Jizelle's family. It's a pity she had to go in such a short space of time and the circumstances in which it happened. It's very sad, touching, heart-breaking and everything that goes with it. We just thank God for the life she lived and I hope that other young people would follow in her footsteps. They do not have to be a boxer but follow her footsteps, her mannerism and different things like that.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Kirt Sinnette, Trinidad and Tobago Super Midweight Boxing Champion and former WBA Caribbean Champion: you are very much familiar with the whole boxing arena, tell us your thoughts on the contributions of Jizelle Salandy?
KIRT SINNETTE: I must say that Jizelle Salandy has done a lot for boxing in Trinidad and Tobago, especially as a woman. She even started to get the public more interested in boxing. I must give kudos to her boxing promoter and manager, Buxo Potts, for really and truly marketing her.
TRINIVIEW.COM: You are very familiar with the boxing arena. What inspired you most about Jizelle Salandy?
KIRT SINNETTE: Her ability, braveness and her aggression.
TRINIVIEW.COM: How do you think the nation should best remember her?
KIRT SINNETTE: What she was best in, which was boxing. What we can do is open a boxing gym in the name of Jizelle Salandy. A lot of young promising young ladies could be coming out of that gym.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you have any last words you would like to share with us?
KIRT SINNETTE: I would like to say that it's a sad day for Trinidad and Tobago to see one of our young icons go down this way and I hope that we all learn a lesson from this, especially the younger ones, and take the necessary precaution on the road. That is most important, and we need to include defensive driving in our system when getting your license so that individuals would see the danger that they are exposed to.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
Senior Magistrate and mother figure to Jizelle, Mrs. Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan:
LUCINA CARDENAS-RAGOONANAN: I know that we are really here to send her off and I think that it is fitting that everyone should be here to send her off. She was a remarkable person and I've had the opportunity to really spend a lot of time with her. She spent some nights at my home talking and counseling because she had a hard life and she'd been through a lot and to see her rise and fall was something I don't think a lot of people would see in a lifetime. The way I see it, God gives us life and can take it and not only that, life, I realize, has joy and pain, so we accept it. I accept it and I know that she is in a much better place than we are now.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What do you remember most about Jizelle Salandy?
LUCINA CARDENAS-RAGOONANAN: There is so much. She was a very determined young lady. It was obvious from the way she did her performances; you could see she was focused. When she decided to focus on something you know that it was going to be successful. At the same time, she could be determined in the opposite direction as well. She would not take counsel sometimes but again that's human and that is normal. In a way, she was remarkable for being able to balance the two because as a young person, to be able to place that kind of energy and focus into a sport, which obviously is so demanding and so difficult for many people, man and woman, she was able to do that and conquer at the end of the day. Despite all of the challenges that she had, she was still able to do that. I think it is really just youth. Because of her age and not being as mature as she could be and not having as much experiences that she would have at that age, obviously that side where you can't see the consequences of actions, you are prepared to take risks not realizing if you do take those risks there will be a negative consequence, obviously.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
Rachel Vincent of Corpus Christi College, Diego Martin:
RACHEL VINCENT: We came here today to witness the funeral because Jizelle was very inspirational to us and she was always devoted to what she did... her training and everything and we just came here today to pay our last respects.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What inspired you most about her life?
RACHEL VINCENT: She always wanted to win and anything she did she wasn't negative; she was always positive. She was somebody to look up to and a good role model.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What lessons do you think young people could learn from her life?
RACHEL VINCENT: We could learn discipline in anything we do and encourage people to support us and anything like that.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you have any last words you would like to share with us?
RACHEL VINCENT: She was a good role model to us and we would never forget her. She was always there and she always wanted to win.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
Soca/Dancehall artist, Edghill 'Maximus Dan' Thomas:
MAXIMUS DAN: First, our hearts go out to the family, well wishers, friends and all the people that she was associated with in her career and in her whole life. It is definitely a loss for Trinidad and Tobago being a youth, seeing how hard it is for us as youths to really shine that positive light because there are so many things to distract a young person whether it be party, whether it be bad influences and here was an individual who stood for something positive, who made her life shine in the short space of time that she was on this earth. We need to record that and we need to highlight that for however long Trinidad and Tobago is in existence. We know about our nation's heroes and she was definitely a hero to many, particularly young women in Trinidad. She made an impact on the whole.
We are just here, myself and Jadee. Jadee more than me; he had a lot of close encounters with her in terms of giving her advice and talking to her about the Lord. We did a couple of segments at some of the bouts, whether it be entertainment or whether it be going to support. She was always a person that had that vibrant glow and we just liked that. We like people who let their light shine. Today, we are here to pay our respects and it is not a final respect but to pay our respect period, all the time.
TRINIVIEW.COM: She certainly touched the lives of many ordinary people. How do you think the nation should remember her?
MAXIMUS DAN: People should just keep talking about her. Whether it be the school teachers, whether it be the sports aficionados, whether you put up a website or you put up a monument so that people remember who is Jizelle Salandy because sometimes, we are not honouring the people who need to be honoured and this is not a time for us to forget after ten days. We shall not and we will not forget that young woman called Jizelle Salandy because she did us extremely proud and because she made a mark on the world. We are talking about eight belts; we are talking about seventeen bouts without a loss. We are talking about somebody who used to give back, period. Before her untimely death, from what I understand by the news reports, she was supposed to do some sort of charity work a couple of days ago. This girl's life was all about giving of herself, giving of her time, giving of her talent, giving of her spirit and we should carry a piece of that in our lives because greatness is in all of us. Some of us just tap into it earlier than some and she tapped into a greatness from a very tender age. Some people try to do a whole life of work and at twenty-one she did so much. We need to look at that as an example to follow whether you are young, Black, White, Chinese or whatever. As a Trinbagonian we need to record that, put it on our minds, put it in our hearts and let it be something of inspiration.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
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