(Trinidad Express) Kenneth Valley was a selfless man who would give a stranger the shirt off his back, his son Kerwyn said yesterday. He added that his father measured his wealth not by materialism but by the lives he touched in his own journey through life.
Valley, 63, a former government minister and stalwart of the People’s National Movement (PNM), died yesterday at his Diego Martin home at 3.30 a.m. after a long battle with cancer.
His wife Carol and two of his six children were at his side at the time of his death, as well as two nurses.
Condolences and expressions of sympathy poured in yesterday from former political colleagues and friends as well as present members of Government.
In an interview with the Express at his home, Valley’s son, Kerwyn, recounted his father’s pain and joys over the last year up to the few hours before his death.
“We knew that the end was approaching and he knew that too and he chose to make his peace with everybody,” he said.
Valley, he said, was very energetic but his health deteriorated rapidly over the past two months.
“He was responding well to the chemotherapy, but, of course, chemotherapy could be a mixed blessing, so the side effects of the chemotherapy were impacting more on him that the treatment itself. He had succumbed to the side effects,” said Kerwyn.
Kerwyn said he saw his father just about four hours before his death.
“He was aware but he could not speak, could nod his head in agreement and shake his head in disagreement,” he said.
Asked what kept up his father’s energy over the past year and what had him going given that he was ill with cancer, Kerwyn responded: “There were two things that happened over the past year that really energised him. One was always politics, not for politics sake but for what it would do for his countrymen, and so for the election he was energised and he was quite healthy around the election and quite engaged in the process.
“Secondly, recently he became chairman of my company, AIC Capital Brokers Ltd. This really increased his will to fight the cancer.”
Asked if he believed his father lived a full life and died a happy man, he responded: “I think he lived a full life based on what he wanted to accomplish … he had visions for uniting the entire Caribbean, he spoke about an independent Caribbean … he wanted to see that there are more value-added goods and services that would appeal to the entire world as opposed to a commodity-based region.”
Kerwyn continued: “He wanted to strengthen linkages between the Caribbean, principally Trinidad and Tobago and Latin America, and over the last few years that was what he was working aggressively on, he even came out with a magazine called Pulse.”
As a father, Kerwyn said Valley stressed the importance of a good education.
He said Valley was one of those people who always put others before himself.
“He stood for certain things—honesty, integrity, loyalty. He believed that true wealth was not material but it was what you give and gave to others,” he said.
Valley’s daughter Kieran told the Express that their mother, Carol, is a strong woman and was going “quite well” since the death.
“This country would know and anybody who interacted with him would know he is very generous, very giving, his heart was very big and he was this way with everyone, family and friends,” said Kieran.
Funeral arrangements for Valley are expected to be finalised today as relatives will be returning from overseas, including one of his two daughters who lives in Toronto.