Couva's PC 'Neppy' laid to rest

PC Kent “Neppy” Neptune, who died in a car crash last week, was laid to rest on Friday afternoon.

His family recalled fond memories of the man they said was hilarious, optimistic and a lover of calypso.

Police reported around 10 pm last Thursday, Neptune was heading north along the Solomon Hochoy Highway but lost control of his car. It flipped several times before landing near Harmony Hall. His body was found 100 feet away.

He lived in Couva, was based at the Mon Repos Police Station and was the father of four.

When Newsday visited the family at their Union Hall home the following day, they had barely slept and said they felt “lost,” “shocked,” and “hopeless.”

The funeral was handled by JE Guide Funeral Home and Crematorium Ltd at Coffee Street, San Fernando, where proceedings began with a drive-by viewing of the body.

His daughter, Nicola Neptune, told Newsday the viewing began around 11.30 am and scores of police officers stopped by to pay tribute.

Musician Vincent Richards stood next to the coffin and sang a calypso medley since Neptune "loved calypso, so we hired someone to sing and play the guitar,” Nicola said.

Neptune’s widow Valerie and their son Kyle could not hold back their emotions when it was their turn to drive by for the viewing.

A tearful Valerie said, “He lived a good life. He enjoyed his life to the fullest.”

During the service, which was streamed online, Neptune’s younger brother Peter Neptune gave the first eulogy.

He said his brother was the best storyteller ever.

“Kent had a story for every occasion,” he said. “And they weren’t just any old story either. There was a message in every word and every phrase of the story. Sometimes, he would tell the story many times, because he loved to engage everyone he met, and he lived for the smiles on the faces of everyone he saw.”

He said his brother was always the “life of the party.”

But, he said, “Somebody switched off the music on us last Thursday night.”

He said their early life was often tough but his brother always persevered.

He said when his brother was accepted into the Police Training Academy, he celebrated for an entire week.

Although they were polar opposites, he and his brother were always there for and learnt a lot from each other, he said.

“Although we sometimes fought tooth and nail, got vex and walked out, we always knew that we had each other. And everyone cried dearly when we heard of his passing. We all had great memories with Kent growing up...

“He was always there guiding and pushing me along.

“I was there when he broke his both arms, when we bounce down a lady on our bike in Marabella, he taught me how to drive, he was there for my first fender-bender, and he pulled me under his wings and made me feel like I was the most important person in his life.”

Nicola remembered her father as someone who always enjoyed making others smile and assisting whenever he could.

“Even if someone wronged him, he will always find something positive about the person or the situation and move forward without even thinking about it again.

“Family was the most important thing to him. He loved his wife, children, father, siblings – he loved them all unconditionally.”

She shared the story of how her parents met near King’s Wharf, San Fernando, in 1986.

Her mother "fondly recalled the first interaction she had with the slim, trim, handsome Kent Neptune,” she said laughingly.

“Eventually, he started playing cricket with them (Valerie and her siblings) and he so wanted to impress her – the ball went up in a tree and stick up, he climbed the tree to take down the ball and then stick up there and couldn’t come back down. He stayed up there for over 20 minutes.”

She said since then, the two had been inseparable.

And yet again, Neptune’s jovial spirit was evident on his wedding day.

He forgot his shoes in his car which he had loaned to his cousin Ronald.

“So Ronald went with the shoes. And it had no cellphone in those days, so he couldn’t call to say, ‘Aye, bring back the shoes, boy.’

“Because of the size of his foot, the only shoes that could have fit him in the house was aunty shoes, and this was a pink moccasin with rhinestones all over. And everybody here know Daddy – that didn’t faze him.

"He stand up there with the pink moccasins, proud. They held hands and laughed throughout the whole ceremony.”

She said her father was a hard worker who always provided for his family.

Kyle recalled how often his father would listen to reggae and vintage calypso and extempo and go to calypso tents. He even had a notepad in which he collected the autographs of his favourite calypsonians.

“He owned a guitar and a recorder which he would take to the toilet with him and sit there with a cup of coffee and playing the instruments for over two hours,” Kyle said.

He said they had just started getting closer to each other.

“He was our protector, our support and our rock…our personal comedian, the life of the party, our adviser – he was our everything.

“It will take days to tell you how many good things my father did and how many people he helped in his life.”

Neptune was buried at Roodal Cemetery, San Fernando.