Even in his last moments Kenneth De Abreu tried to spare others the inevitable pain of life. At the age of 76, dying from cancer and other complications, he had branded his name in Guyanese sport and the private sector ensuring that it was one that would be in our history.
Recounting fond memories of their father as they mourned his loss three of De Abreu’s children said that he will be remembered by them as a man who understood the value of time, a man who used it well and pushed others to do the same.
Early Wednesday morning De Abreu lost his painful fight with stage-four cancer. Her father, Zelda said, had been bed ridden for a while in the US. He also suffered from clogged arteries and his health had showed no promise of improving.
On Wednesday, Zelda said, even as her father struggled with his pain he tried his best not to distress anyone. He refused to have them call an ambulance. It was after she could bear watching his condition no more, Zelda recalled, that she called a medic. While the medic was present at their home De Abreu stopped breathing.
For decades De Abreu served as a director to beverage giant Banks DIH. He was an industrious man, company officials have said and it was truly amazing to watch De Abreu in action. No one, they said, could quite understand how he managed to fit so many activities in one day.
Whenever he thinks of his father, 50-year-old Andrew said, he remembers visiting him at Banks DIH. As a school boy, Andrew recalled, he visited his father quite often and every time he showed up he was forced to wait in line.
“There were always many persons there to see him… many elderly people and they all had a number of concerns to tell him about,” Andrew recalled. “It didn’t matter how insignificant those concerns were to other people they were never insignificant to my father. So I’d sit and wait my turn as he helped those he could.”
There were gaps in their lives, Andrew said, when they were unable to communicate. But just knowing that his father was a phone call away always comforted him. The sense of loss which the family feels, Andrew stated, is staggering.
George, De Abreu’s youngest child, remembers his father as being a very strict man. His father, he said, was a man who made plans, stuck to them and taught his children and everyone around him the same thing.
“My father was a man who knew dreaming wasn’t everything,” George said. “He knew that without hard work we would never achieve our dreams…it was he who taught me the importance of money and how to manage it.”
De Abreu was also well known for his humanitarian work. He served in a prominent position at the Guyana Red Cross Society for several years and was a long standing member of the Lion’s Club. Helping the less fortunate, the elderly and even the not so less fortunate, George said, seemed to be his father’s greatest passion in life.
De Abreu was a longstanding member of the National Sports Council and was appointed Chairman of the National Sports Commission in 1993. He was regarded as a true lover of sport, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport said in a release on Thursday.
He was also the former President of the Guyana Table Tennis Association and his passion for that sport is well known. For many years the Kenneth De Abreu eight-week table tennis league generated much interest among youths.
During his lifetime, February 2, 1934 to June 30, 2010, De Abreu served as a role model for many, his children said, and has definitely left his mark on Guyanese society.
