Kenrick Titus

Be on the lookout for pensioner Kenrick Titus and help save his life by contacting the police.

The 73-year-old father of Boodoosingh Lane, Rousillac suffers with Alzheimer’s disease, has been missing since April 2019 and has been spotted on four occasions — once near the PTSC bus terminus in Port of Spain, then eight months ago at King’s Wharf, San Fernando, within walking distance from the transit terminus.

He was also seen at Princes Town and Curepe. His family has followed up on those leads, but have thus far been unable to find him and bring him home to safety.

It is no surprise to his loved ones that Titus’ failing memory would circle back to his glory days when he worked as a bus driver with the Public Transport Service Corporation, a job he did with pride for over 30 years.

His adolescent fascination with driving never faded, said his brother Carlton, 71, in an interview with the Express on Tuesday. Carlton remembered that as a young man in the 1960s Titus was ever enthusiastic to be the family’s designated driver of their father’s cars. Carlton believes the frailty of his brother’s mind may have led him back to his familiar environment from decades ago.

“At this age, your head might lead you to the places that you used to frequent as a younger person. So, where he used to work, or lime is what he can remember and that is where he does go,” he said.

“Anytime I go out I am always on the lookout. I pray for God to reveal to us where we could find him so that we could finally bring him home and close this case,” said the brother.

Titus transported thousands

That bus-driving job of transporting thousands of people per week safely with gruelling hours and mental stressors to keeping a strict schedule was done effortlessly by Titus, who devoted the best years of his life to his job, said his son Kenton in an interview on Tuesday.

It was a former co-worker of Titus that spotted him wandering months after he disappeared from his home.

The co-worker had not known that the man’s family and police had been searching for him but acknowledged that with the shabby attire, overgrown hair and lost look in his eyes he was far from the cheerful and sharply-dressed professional of years ago.

Titus was born on January 23, 1948, the third of seven children to their parents Earl and Emelda Titus.

The family first lived at Lothians Road, Princes Town, then moved to Barrackpore when their father secured a job as a welder at the Texaco oilfields.

They resided in a house on the company’s compound surrounded by other company houses occupied by employees and their families.

As a teenager, Titus attended the Monkey Town Secondary School and at the end of his academic schooling, he learned masonry and worked in construction until he took up a job as a taxi driver, and later as a bus driver.

“He loved driving, on the whole, driving anything. Our father had bought old cars for us and Kenrick could drive whole day; if you gave him a chance, the whole night. We had a Vauxhall Cresta, a Hillman Hunter and Hillman Super Minx. My father did not have a license so Kenrick was always the designated driver. He loved himself,” Carlton said with a chuckle. Carlton described him as a quiet man who kept to himself most of the time, so when he left home and got married, they lost touch.

When his first wife passed on, he met another woman and had two children — Kenton and Judy — and the family lived at Boodoosingh Trace, Rousillac.

Years later they separated, and Titus remained at the house.

He married Josephine Banfield and she too passed on, months before Titus went missing.

Mentor and hero

On Tuesday, Kenton, 30, told Express he had the perfect relationship with his father, who was his mentor and hero.

“My father and I were like Bonnie and Clyde. I knew everything about him. What he didn’t tell me, I figured out. We never argued. My father is a strong family man, and the only thing he wanted from me which I could not do as yet, was getting married. He had this vision to have grandchildren and to be at home playing with them. I told him it was not that it was not possible, but I have not found the right person yet,” said Kenton.

“Everyone in Rousillac loves him because he is a gentleman. He does not have any enemies. He is a lover, not a fighter. He always tries to make peace and keep people calm no matter the situation,” said Kenton.

There was no glamour and glitz on the mundane and long-distance routes he worked from Port of Spain to San Fernando, and Point Fortin to San Fernando, nor with the repetitiveness and pressure to be punctual to the schedules. But he enjoyed every moment until he retired in 2013.

The best days were when he picked me up after school. He used to pick me up at St Clement’s Junction and carry me for joyrides. Every weekday, by half-past three I was in the back of the bus, going for ice cream or just riding with him. He loved it, I loved it,” said Kenton with a laugh. “He taught me how to love, love what I do, share and understand people. He did not believe that money was everything, nor the key to happiness in life,” said the son.

Kenton said a year after his father’s retirement, he fell down the staircase at the back of his house and became unconscious.

He remained comatose at the San Fernando General Hospital for almost a month, and the injuries were so severe that the doctors had given up on him, said the son.

“The doctors wanted to pull the plug on him but I told them no. I would visit my father, and I told him ‘Daddy, open your eyes’, and he did. He opened his eyes and smiled at me. That is the kind of relationship we have,” said Kenton.

Tearful Father’s Day

Titus returned to his home but his memory loss increased with time. He became a mere shell of himself and sometimes even forgot his son’s name.

On April 21, 2019, Kenton purchased a bed, chair and refrigerator for his father’s house. He gave his father some money too, and warned him not to go “joyriding”.

Kenton, then employed as a security guard, got called out to work that night. The next morning he returned but his father was not at home, nor anywhere in the village, and no one had seen him. He reported Titus missing to the nearby La Brea Police station and there began to quest to bring his father home.

“I went everywhere — Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Rapid Response Patrol, La Brea Police — all of them have tried hard too. I checked all the hospitals, mortuaries and everywhere I could think of. I believe that he is alive.” he said.

“Father’s Day left me in tears. I missed him. We had great memories and it was hurtful not spending the day with him. I just need to find him,” said Kenton.