The story of Chief Prison Officer, Prince Cox

Oct 04, 2020 Features / Columnists, News

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Summoned to higher calling after touching the lives of many…

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News –  On the morning of August 31, a young Superintendent of Prisons, Olivia Cox, left her West Bank Demerara (WBD) home for work in high spirits.

She hopped into her car, started the engine and paused for a while. Her mind flashed back to a romantic conversation she had the night before with her “tall, dark and handsome” husband, Prince Cox, a Chief Prison Officer, who she’d fondly nicknamed “Sensei”.
She blushed, located his flash drive, plugged it into the car’s deck and browsed through some of his musical selections.
Finally, she found something worth listening to – some romantic soul music. Olivia turned the volume up and drove off, humming along to the love songs. The tunes made her think more and more of her “Sensei” and she began singing the beautiful lyrics out loud. Not long after, she made a turn off Mandela Avenue onto Homestretch Avenue in Georgetown. It was just after 08:00hrs and up ahead Olivia noticed a minor traffic build up. As she drove up a little more, she saw a small crowd and the wreckage of two cars. “Another accident!” she must have taught. She stopped, took a look at the accident scene and in her mind said, “I hope there are no fatalities and everyone is okay.”
Without enquiring any further, she stepped on the gas because she did not want to be late for work. But as Olivia was nearing the Camp Street Prison where she was stationed, she noticed that something was amiss. Her colleagues were standing on the road waiting to meet her but with glum faces. She stepped out of the car and asked, “what’s wrong?” They responded, ‘Did they call you? Did you hear?’ Clueless, a perturbed Olivia asked: “hear what?”
The colleagues accompanied her into the prison’s compound and told her, ‘they said that Officer (Prince) Cox met with an accident and died.’

NOT MY SENSEI!
A shiver ran through her body. “No, that is not possible!” she exclaimed.
“He is not driving. I have the car, that is wrong news,” Olivia immediately tried to clarify.
To qualify her belief, she asked a colleague to call Officer Cox’s cell phone.
Her heart raced as the colleague dialled the number. The phone rang out and the call was forwarded to voicemail. But Olivia’s colleague dialled again. This time someone answered the phone and the colleague handed the phone to Olivia.
“Hello,” she said, “Where is Prince?” The response made Olivia freeze. ‘He got into a car crash this morning on Homestretch Avenue and passed away. His body is here at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).’
“No, it can’t be, not my Sensei!” said Olivia as tears rolled down her cheeks. She soon realised that the horrific accident scene she had passed on her way to work was in fact the very one that claimed her husband’s life. In that moment she lost all control of her emotions.
Soon after his death was confirmed, headlines began surfacing on the internet: ‘Prison Officer killed, others injured in smashup’.
The following day, this publication carried a version of the tragedy titled: “Chief Prison Officer dies in Homestretch Avenue smashup”.
According to that report Officer Cox, 38, was heading home from his duties at the Lusignan Prison in a car driven by his co-worker.
It was further reported that while journeying along on Homestretch Avenue towards Georgetown, his co-worker decided to overtake some vehicles in the vicinity of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit’s office.
However, he ended up in the path of a Nissan X-Trail SUV. It was detailed that the co-worker swerved the car more towards the northern side of the road to avoid a collision but was not fast enough. This resulted in the SUV crashing into the front door of the car on the passenger’s side where Cox was seated.
Public-spirited citizens helped to pull an unconscious Cox, along with his injured colleagues, from the wreckage. They were all subsequently rushed to the GPHC where Cox was pronounced dead on arrival.
News of his tragic death spread quickly and his friends, including co-workers, expressed disbelief on the various social media platforms.
Some even stated that they had worked alongside Cox the night before he died. Others said that they had said goodbye to him mere hours before he met his demise in the accident.

DEDICATED TO SERVICE
His superiors in the Guyana Prison Service reflected on his outstanding career and dedication to service. They all agreed that they could leave Cox in charge of a Prison and sleep peacefully knowing that he was capable of keeping things under control.
Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels, spoke of his major accomplishments during his almost 16-year-long career.
He said that Cox had joined the Prison Service in October 2004 and quickly moved up the ranks. This, he said, was because of his discipline and excellent service.
He recalled Cox’s promotion to Principle Officer One in 2009 and another promotion to Principle Officer Two in 2016. Samuels further recounted that he had recently assumed his new post of Chief Prison Officer after a third promotion in January 2020.

TALL DARK AND HANDSOME
Apart from his illustrious career, however, Cox’s now widowed wife, Olivia, told another tale of her late husband.
Hers is that of a “tall dark and handsome Sensei”. Olivia strolled down memory lane and as she did, she was drawn to the day she first laid eyes on Officer Cox.
It was April 2008 and Olivia had recently joined the Prison Service as a freshman who needed guidance and someone to teach her the job. She was assigned to the finance department and placed to work under Officer Cox.
Olivia recalled walking up a flight of stairs and entering an office where a tall, neatly dressed, handsome young man stood braced against a wall, looking through a window.
Olivia said “good morning” but her greeting was ignored.
She became annoyed and with her fierce personality, she stiffened her shoulders, stood upright and repeated, this time loudly, “Hello, I said good morning sir”.
Cox, she said, turned around slowly, smiled and responded “sorry, I did not hear you ma’am”.
From that moment on something magical happened between the two. He paid a special interest in her and made sure that she learnt everything she needed to know perfectly.
Olivia said that it was during the many training sessions and lessons that they both fell madly in love.
“It all happened so fast and before we knew it, we started hanging out and having dates,” said Olivia.

THE PROPOSAL
According to her, at first she thought that Cox was not serious because she was a single mother with a seven-year-old daughter.

However, she was about to receive a surprise that drove her to tears.
In June of that same year, two days after her birthday, Cox had invited her to hang with him at his parent’s home.
For Olivia it was just going to be another night to enjoy with her teacher.
In the midst of the chatter, laughter and soft music, the unthinkable happened. There was sudden silence at the gathering and Cox was on his knees with a ring in his hand. Olivia was left in awe, as she drifted to cloud nine hearing the words ‘Olivia will you marry me?’
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she happily said yes and Cox, the love of her life, placed the ring on her finger.
It was all set; she was going to become a married woman in December 2008.
Throughout the hectic plans for the wedding day, Olivia remembers being teased by her friends repeatedly. “They would tease and say ‘you does always get everything you want eh… you always like them tall dark and handsome now you marrying a tall dark and handsome…you glad eh?’” Olivia recalled.

As she fast forwarded to the wedding day, she reminisced on walking down the aisle of the church as Cox’s eager eyes gazed upon her.
She smiled as she recalled how he held her closely and danced with her in the halls of the YMCA that evening. “For me it was like a fairy tale,” recounted Olivia.
As she continued her journey down memory lane sharing memories of a short 12-year long marriage to her true love, she said, “I admired the way he took care of my daughter as if she was his own flesh and blood; she too fell in love with him and even called him daddy.”
But he nevertheless had a desire to father his own children. Olivia remembered how excited he was when she told him that she was pregnant with his first child – a boy who they named Amani.
“I remember that at times I would get sick and vomit a lot, and there Cox would be right behind me making jokes and dancing just to cheer me up and make me feel better,” Olivia recalled.
In order to ensure that she had sufficient rest during her pregnancy, he would do the dishes, clean the house and even washed. But cooking wasn’t his thing, she joked.
When asked why Cox did not cook, she laughed and then informed that he simply did not know how to cook anything else except “only plantain and eggs”.
“Even when it was Mother’s Day I can predict that I will be served plantain and eggs with local juice,” said Olivia as a smile formed on her face.
Despite having to do the cooking, she was happy that he was with her every step of the way until Amani was born in 2014.

A FAMILY MAN
She continued her tale by disclosing that besides their romantic relationship, Cox was a family man and an awesome father who spent time with his step-daughter, son and their little baby girl who was born in 2018.

Part of his routine as head of the home, Olivia said, was teaching, training and imparting all of his knowledge to them, whether it was sports or what he had learnt as a Prison Officer.
Olivia noted that part of those strict training sessions was learning of his favourite sport — basketball.
“Cox loved basketball, he loved the lakers and of course Kobe Bryant was a legend to him,” she said.
Bright and early, she recalled heading, along with her older daughter, to the national park, to do laps and basketball training with him. “If we made a mistake or failed to learn, we would be ‘punished’ with push-ups or extra laps,” she said amidst a grin which soon turned in desperate as she came to terms with the fact that all she has left of him are the many memories they made over the years.
He was a strict instructor. Olivia said that they were not permitted to call him by his given names during training sessions, adding that sir or coach were the only names he would respond to.
“He was so passionate about the sport that every time he left for a training session in the US, he would say that he will try to find Kobe Bryant and convince him to train his son to become a professional basket player,” said Olivia.It was after returning from one of these training sessions in the US, Olivia said that Cox revealed, during a routine training session, that he must be called “Sensei”.
The next day, she recalled, he began a new course with the entire family, teaching them about what he had learnt during an “On Hands Combat” course.
As expected, Olivia said they made a lot of mistakes and were punished with difficult exercises. Moreover, every time they complained by saying “daddy” or ‘hon’, Cox would remind them to: ‘call me Sensei’.
At first Olivia made fun of him but soon grew comfortable that indeed he was a “Sensei”. It was his job to teach and train other officers like himself; it was part of him. In fact, that was how she fell in love with him; he was her teacher too, her “tall, dark and handsome sensei”.
In addition to being a sensei to his family, Olivia said Cox’s main focus was to make the kids happy and secure a great future for them.
She remembered the grand sweet sixteen party he organised for her daughter.“He danced with her, changed her flat shoes, placed the high heels on her feet and made sure that she had a perfect evening,” Olivia recounted.
Olivia remembered too that on one occasion he grabbed her in his arms and jokingly said, ‘If something happens to me, I am not worried about you nor this house; I will be worried about my children’.
Olivia said she asked him “‘why” and he responded ‘Because I know you are a go-getter and very capable of taking care of yourself but if I should die I won’t be around to see what kind of man you will take’.
He would then, laugh and warn, ‘if you take a stupid man that will punish my children, I will wait for you in jumby land just to torment you’.
“I laughed it off and said that would never happen,” said Olivia.
With passing days and years Olivia said that her love for Cox and the bond they shared as a family grew stronger and it seemed as if their fairy tale-like life together would never end.
But this was about to change.

DRASTIC CHANGES
This year started on a high for Olivia and Cox but soon made a dash for the worst with the arrival of COVID-19.
Despite the drastic changes around them they relished the opportunity to do what they loved, that is to spend more time together as a family.
The kids were home, the schools were closed, and Cox’s shift schedule was adjusted too. Olivia explained that because of the Coronavirus pandemic Cox worked one week and he was off the next week.
As circumstances would have it, the year 2020 continued down a disastrous path and soon both Olivia and Cox became engulfed in their duties as prison officers. As a result, they were unable to spend much time together as a family.
On Friday August 28, however, Cox called Olivia and told them that whether they were tired or not they must spend the weekend together as a family.
He reminded Olivia of their courting days and requested that she accompany him that evening to a party with friends. Things didn’t work out as he had planned and the date with his beloved wife did not happen.
The following the day he insisted that he wanted to take the family for a day out. Olivia told him of the COVID-19 restrictions but this did not deter him; he convinced her to say okay.
They prepared themselves, dressed the children, and headed for the Georgetown seawalls that afternoon. Along the way they stopped to get food and while everyone opted for a chicken burger with other meals, Cox wanted his favourite — a Chinese fried rice with sweet and sour chicken.
He searched and searched but could not find sweet and sour chicken. Cox did not want to waste more time, so he settled for a striped chicken fried rice and continued to the seawall.
They ate and Cox sat with Olivia sharing a few drinks as they watched their children play on the trampolines. It was a perfect afternoon and as it came to an end Cox found someone to snap a family portrait before they left the seawalls.
The family wrapped up the afternoon with a walk behind the Marriott International Hotel where Cox told them stories of his childhood days. One of his stories saw him recounting how he, along with friends, would kill and eat the kiki birds that are seen in their numbers, especially at around afternoon hours, along the seawall area.
It was August 30 and Officer Cox was preparing for his night shift at the Lusignan Prison. Before leaving home he joined Olivia on their veranda and the two shared a moment. Olivia recalled that Amani their son was pranking them, his father got up, caught him and took him into one of the bedrooms for a chat.
He then returned and continued his conversation with Olivia. Just before he left, Olivia remembered telling him that she loves him dearly and will always love him no matter what the situation or the circumstances may be. She then waved goodbye to him.
Curiosity got the better of her and she asked Amani about the chat he had with his father. Amani responded that his dad told him that no matter what happens in life, he must always remember that they love him dearly.
On Monday August 31, minutes before Cox’s life was snuffed out in the fatal crash along Homestretch Avenue, his colleague recalled him saying ‘if anything should happen to me, I just want my family to be ok’.

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