The East End lost a distinguished senior last month after charity volunteer Ada Foggo died, aged 91.

Kenneth Bascome, a former MP and former Mayor of St George, said his mother had been looked upon with pride by her community as “the hat lady”.

He said: “She had so many different styles of hats. She would never be seen without one.”

Mr Bascome added: “The highest aspiration of my life has been to make my mother proud.

“As a young man, I put my mom through some trials and tribulations.”

Mr Bascome said Mrs Foggo attended every election night he was involved in, whether for the Corporation of St George or as an MP.

He added: “If I lost, she was more devastated than I was.”

Mr Bascome said he set out to be “a force to be reckoned with in this society” to honour her.

The mother of six, a lifelong resident of Wellington Hill, was the widow of the late Albert Eugene “German” Foggo.

Mrs Foggo, who was noted for her charitable work, volunteered for the Bermudian-run Feed My Lambs Ministry on the Caribbean island of Haiti — one of the poorest countries in the Americas. Mrs Foggo spoke of her love of giving to The Royal Gazette in 2017, after she travelled to Haiti to meet Colin Djamens, a boy she had sponsored.

Mrs Foggo said: “It felt like it was my own little children when they were young.

“I really love the little boy — and his mama, we both hugged and everything.”

Mr Bascome said his grandfather had been determined his mother and her sister, Viola Fubler, would learn a trade and support themselves.

The family ran a store on Water Street and Mrs Foggo became a beautician and Ms Fubler worked as a seamstress and tailor.

Mr Bascome said: “Then my mom had a hairdressing parlour up Wellington Hill. My grandfather built that parlour for her.”

He added his mother lived in “Calalee” on Waterloo Lane in St George’s and was proud of her independence.

The house’s name came from her son Eugene “Calabash” Foggo, a former St George’s Cup Match cricketer, and her daughter, Candy-Lee Foggo, the town manager and secretary at the Corporation of St George.

After cancer was diagnosed in Mrs Foggo, she was disappointed she could no longer drive herself.

She was cared for at the Agape House hospice in Paget, where she passed.

Mr Bascome said he was heartbroken by the family’s loss.

He added: “When young people tell me they can’t get on with their mothers, I can’t relate to that.”

Tributes were paid to Mrs Foggo in the House of Assembly on June 19.

Michael Dunkley, an opposition backbencher, offered sympathy on “the passing of a wonderful lady”.

He added: “We love our mothers, but Kenny certainly had a close affinity for his. She was the centre of his world.”

Kim Swan, the St George’s West MP for the Progressive Labour Party, said Mrs Foggo was “a delightful lady” who, with Ms Fubler, enjoyed entertaining other seniors at rest homes until the Covid-19 pandemic halted their visits.

Renée Ming, the PLP MP for St George’s North, added that she knew Mrs Foggo through the Richard Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church.

She said Mrs Foggo was “quite a character who will be missed around St George’s”.

Ada Louise Foggo was born on December 20, 1928. She died of cancer on June 11, 2020