With $40 in his wallet, postal inspector Mohammed Rojan-Ali left his Princes Town home on June 23, 1989, and never returned.
Although 27 years have passed, his wife, Shairoon, 73, speaks of her “first love” with sincere admiration but admitted times were tough without him. “Wherever he is, he is dead,” she said.
The couple married when Shairoon was 18 and Rojan-Ali 25, and they lived happily without any arguments for over two decades, she said.
“He was my first love. He did everything for me. He spoiled me,” she told the T&T Sunday Guardian during an interview at her home on Fairfield Road in Princes Town, on Tuesday.
Even though she now suffers from arthritis, eye problems, swollen feet and other illnesses, she still manages to move around and prepare meals for her grandchildren.
It was on June 23, 1989, when Rojan-Ali, 52, left his car at home to travel to Port-of-Spain for “a big meeting.”
It was a Friday. The family had spent Father’s Day together the weekend before with their four adult children—Debbie, Lincoln, Sharon, and Winston. She said: “When that happened, I was 45 years. The Sunday was Father’s Day and then the Friday that happened.”
“He said there was a big meeting up in town and from that day, I never see that man again. I don’t know if he gone up or if he gone down.”
However, she said she was later told there was no meeting. She said she discovered something was wrong because she was sick and had given him a prescription.
“Something tell me look in the garbage and it was crumpled and in there. My belief is that he was threatened and he risked his life for his family. But I could be wrong.”
Rojan-Ali had over 33 years service with the national postal company.
She said he wore a blue and white uniform similar to a customs officer and would inspect mail for anything illegal.
She said: “He was not a womaniser, he was not a drinker, and he was not a limer.”
In fact, Rojan-Ali was a devout Muslim who prayed daily, kept fast during the Ramadan, and attended mosque regularly.
Questioned on whether he seemed upset or disturbed days before he went missing, she said he was fine. “He never brought his work home. We never had family issues and we lived really happy with the children.
“To this day, I don’t know what caused that.”
She waited all night for her husband to come home but he did not. “I could not sleep.”
Asked how she was able to carry on for the last 27 years, Shairoon said: “I have to be a really strong woman. Listen to me, you have to believe in God and if God can’t help you, no man can.”
Son: You have to move on
Last child and son, Winston, 49, said he remembered the last day he saw his father. Rojan-Ali came into the bedroom, looked at him on a bed and walked away.
Winston was then 22 and said he and his father were extremely close and did a lot together.
He pointed to his 14-year-old son sitting close by and said they too had a similar bond.
Shairoon said there were many rumours at the time that her husband was seen in different parts of the country but the police had no evidence.
Her two sons searched throughout the country for their father for almost a month.
The search even took them to the mainland in Venezuela. Muslim prayers for his safe return were held at home for a few weeks.
Winston said: “We went to Cedros, Icacos, Moruga, Mayaro, and the Caroni river bank. Up to now...nothing, and it’s 27 years now and not a trace. It’s only hearsay.”
However, he said he believed his father was dead and it was time to move on.
“That is a thing of the past. You have to think of the future now. I don’t know how he died but I am sorry we never got a body to bury him. Life has to go on.”