Beloved village midwife dies at 95

A pillar of Placencia Village life for almost seven decades has passed away. Mrs. Athelo Cabral, better known as Miss Telo, Aunt Telo or Mother, died Friday in Southern Regional Hospital at the age of ninety-five. Miss Telo was born in Belize City in 1911 and first came to Placencia in 1936 while on holiday from her job as ward maid at Punta Gorda Hospital. She moved to the village permanently in 1940 to marry Leopold Cabral, whom she met on her first visit. Due to her hospital background she was soon called upon to assist with first aid and child births and in 1954 and 55 received six months of formal midwife training. From that time until her retirement Miss Telo delivered approximately three hundred babies, effectively doubling the population of Placencia as it grew from a remote fishing village with no electricity, phones, road or sidewalk to the prosperous tourism based community it is today. Ironically, she never had any children of her own. Telo Cabral was honoured with an M.B.E. in 1994 and the village health centre is named in her honour. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday at the Placencia Worship Centre.