The cy­cling fra­ter­ni­ty on Tues­day said good­bye to one of their own, Ter­ence Chap­man, a for­mer vice pres­i­dent of the T&T Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion (TTCF), coach, and avid sup­port­er for sev­er­al decades.

Chap­man, recom­mit­ted his life to min­istry and liv­ing for God in his lat­ter years, be­fore his death last Sun­day, af­ter ail­ing for some five months with can­cer.

At his fu­ner­al ser­vice at the First Church of the Open Bible in San Fer­nan­do, Chap­man was re­mem­bered by his daugh­ters Rox­anne Ram­nath and Raquel Abra­ham, as well as his grand­daugh­ter Ja­nine New­ton as some­one who cared and loved his fam­i­ly, friends, cus­tomers, and col­leagues.

He pro­vid­ed vol­un­tary ser­vices for Ra­dio Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, but it was in the sport of cy­cling that he made his biggest im­pact, as vice pres­i­dent, coach, and ad­vis­er to many. Chap­man's con­tri­bu­tion to the sport was so im­pact­ful that he led his en­tire fam­i­ly in­to the ad­min­is­tra­tion in 2005 and has left a last­ing im­pres­sion on his daugh­ter Rowe­na Williams, who is the cur­rent pres­i­dent of the cy­cling fed­er­a­tion.

Abra­ham in an emo­tion­al po­em said though they would have pre­ferred to have their fa­ther there in life with them, he was need­ed in the af­ter­life by the Almighty God. Ram­nath told the au­di­ence that her fa­ther pro­vid­ed every­thing she could ever have asked for and more.

Sup­port­ed by her broth­er Ter­rell Chap­man and daugh­ter Janae, Ram­nath, the first of the late TTCF vice pres­i­dent and wife Vi­da's off­springs said: "Dad was some­one to look up to. I don't like fu­ner­als but any time I go to a fu­ner­al my dad is the one to hold my hand. Dads are some­one to look up to, some­one to fol­low, some­one to ad­mire, some­one to be proud of us and to brag about. They are some­one to hold on to and some­one to cry with, some­one to learn from and some­one to re­spect, some­one to lis­ten to and some­one to talk to, some­one to try and im­press, some­one to rebel against, and most of all some­one with whom to share your every­thing that this beau­ti­ful life has to of­fer.

"I am so in­cred­i­bly grate­ful and hap­py that I can stand here to­day to tell you that I have had all this and more. I can­not be­gin to imag­ine not hav­ing dad at the end of a phone or pop­ping up at a mo­ment's no­tice to as­sist in his ever-grace­ful man­ner with any project, re­gard­less of how big or small it may be.

"Dad was al­ways there for every­one - fam­i­ly, neigh­bours, friends, cus­tomers, and col­leagues, he was al­ways there," Ram­nath said. In Au­gust, Chap­man, a for­mer car sales­man, cel­e­brat­ed his 53rd an­niver­sary with his wife.

Be­fore be­ing cre­mat­ed yes­ter­day, Chap­man's cof­fin was led to the Guide's Cre­ma­to­ri­um on Cof­fee Street San Fer­nan­do by a team from the club he once coached at, Rigtech Son­ics.