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When Kenneth Salick went down on his knees at Skinner Park, San Fernando, and poured his heart out, the subject of his love, Radica Paraboo, was watching him on television.
"I cried," she said in an interview on Monday.
She said he reminded her of the young man who courted her in the village where they both lived.
Salick, who composed the song "Radica" when she walked out of his life 16 years ago, took the Chutney Soca Monarch crown valued at $200,000 with a powerful rendition of the song during the finals held at Skinner Park, San Fernando, on Saturday night.
Though separated, the couple share a love that has endured from childhood through the years.
Radica said she had only good wishes for Salick and is "really happy for him".
She said, "I saw him while he was coming home after winning the competition but we did not get a chance to talk."
The two fell in love during childhood. Radica recalled that Salick "used to ride his bicycle up and down the road and we began talking to each other".
Salick summoned the courage to visit the Paraboo family and meet her grandfather. The teenager was pregnant at 17 and went to live with Salick. In the years that followed she gave birth to seven children.
She said she left because Salick was involved with another woman.
He took the children and moved to Eastern Main Road, Sangre Chiquito.
Left alone, Radica, 40, entered a relationship and had two other children while Salick fathered another child with the new woman in his life.
They are both single again and they both live separately in the same village at Melau, Vega de Oropouche, Sangre Grande.
Since the release of the song "Radica", there have been two replies in the chutney soca arena.
Brandstec singer, Rawytee Ramroop, sang an Asha Gajadhar composition saying, "Since I left you, I am so happy. You didn't say how you ill treat me, I had to leave."
Gayatones singer Devika Ram's reply titled "Wrong Name" suggested that Salick called her Radica instead of Devika and "that was why I went to Tobago."
They were both wrong.
Celebrations are in order and the Salicks are rejoicing. Radica Paraboo included!
