Kitch family loses Rain-o-Rama

Kitch family loses Rain-o-Rama
By Francis Joseph, Newsday News, Saturday, October 27th, 2007

THE common-law wife and three children of the late Grandmaster Aldwyn Roberts (Lord Kitchener) have been ordered to vacate the majestic Rain-o-Rama property on the Diego Martin Main Road by December 31.

Yesterday, Justice Lennox Deyalsingh, presiding in the Port-of-Spain First Civil Court, ordered Valarie Green and her children Kernal, Christian and Quweina to vacate the lavish premises and hand over possession to June Ann Howell-Logan, Susan Gittens, and Charmaine Kumar.

Deyalsingh, in an oral ruling, also ordered Green and her children to pay mesne profits (some form of rent for occupying premises without authority) dating back to 2002. He also ordered Green and her children to pay costs.

Gregory Delzin and Faikah Carrmuddeen appeared for the three plaintiffs, while Kerwyn Garcia and Annabelle Boynes represented Green and her children. In an immediate response, Green told Newsday she intends to appeal the ruling of the judge.

"I have to be strong. I tried to protect Kitchener's name, especially what he did to us, myself and his four young children," she said. Green said Kitchener took her out of her parents' house when she was 19. "I gave him four children in his 60's. He never thought he could have had children then. I was the one who helped him to build this house. I went and danced with him. I found the piece of land here and told him to buy it to build this house. We were so proud of it, because it was built with hard-earned money." Green said it was sometime in 1988 that Kitchener came to her and said he wanted the house on his name because he and Carl "Jazzy" Pantin, then manager of the Calypso Revue, wanted to use it as collateral to purchase a property for the tent.

"Kitchener said SWWTU was giving the tent trouble, so he wanted to get his own property to carry on with the tent," she said. She said four months after she put Kitchener's name on the Rain-o-Rama property, she received a letter from a Betsy Ann Howell-Pollard, saying she was the new owner of the Diego Martin home. "I was surprised. This is my home. I have no other home. I did everything for Kitchener. How could he do me this? He promised to take care of me and the children." Green said she had to leave the Rain-o-Rama premises with her four young children with very little money, while Pollard moved in with Kitchener.

She added, "Kitchener controlled the finances. I had nothing. I was 38 at that time and struggling and I had to beg the Government to help me pay my daughter's school fees. Not only did he do this to me, but he did it to his children. He disinherited those children. I did not want to say anything before. I kept protecting his name, and I did not want his name tarnished. He put me out of the house without a penny." Holding back her tears, Green said Pollard died in 1998 and she and the children moved back to Rain-o-Rama with Kitchener. "He then fell sick, I had to take care of him. Where were these people when Kitchener was sick in the hospital? Where were they when I had to bury him?

"Nobody was interested," she added.

Kitchener died on February 11, 2000 and then two years later, Pollard's two sisters and a friend moved to have Green and her children evicted from Rain-o-Rama. A bailiff went to the property early one morning and ordered Green and her children to leave. In her will, Pollard left the property to Kitchener until his death and with further instructions that it should go to her sister when he died. Green's attorneys contended that Kitchener's action constituted fraud, in that he tricked Green into handing over sole ownership of the property to him and that Pollard knew about it.