Lost Tribe to honour Chow Cop, Keith Francois

Mas band the Lost Tribe's designer Keon Chow Cop’s funeral will be held on June 28.

Chow Cop, 34, died on June 12.

His funeral will be held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Independence Square, Port of Spain at 11.30 am.

In an earlier interview, Lost Tribe’s director Valmiki Maharaj said he was a core member of the team and was like family to the band.

On Wednesday, Maharaj said the band’s 2023 presentation will honour both Chow Cop and Keith Francois, 41, one of its committee co-ordinators, who died on June 19.

Maharaj said Francois was one of the most “helpful, most positive, most encouraging people I have ever met in my life.”

He also worked in advertising and was last at Lonsdale Saatchi and Saatchi. On its Facebook page, the firm, said although his death did not feel real and their hearts were aching, it honoured his memory and celebrated a life well lived.

“Thank you for all the laughs. For being the life of the party. For your warmth and kindness. For inspiring us with your empathy and humanity. For being such a good friend to so many,” it said.

Maharaj said, he too, could not believe Francois had died.

“I still feel as if he is going to call me. I know that sounds kind of cliché and naive to say, but the conversations Keith and I used to have were very much about the future, very much about things that we were doing after the pandemic.”

Francois was one of his "right hands" in the band and there was not a project he would carry out without his help, Maharaj added. He was always at the mas camp and ashoulder to lean on when needed, he said.

“I expressed to you how I felt about Keon. Losing the both of them, days apart, I can’t tell you what that is for our committee.”

He was a brilliant marketer and a blessing, Maharaj added.

Arrangements for Francois' funeral are still being made.