Man’s anguish at missing funeral for wife of 51 years
A MAN who lost his wife of 51 years to coronavirus has described his devastation at not being able to attend her funeral.
Tom Best recalled watching his wife Anne (72) being placed in an ambulance and driven away from their home.
It was the last time he saw her. Anne had been complaining of severe pains last Monday and a doctor recommended that given the outbreak of coronavirus and her underlying health conditions, she needed immediate medical attention.
But less than 48 hours later she died in the isolation ward at South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen without seeing her husband again.
Mrs Best, from Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, was the first person to die of Covid-19 in the county.
On Saturday she was buried at St Ninnidh’s cemetery in her home village — again without her husband watching over her.
The retired civil servant has been told to self-isolate at home for 14 days and was essentially banned from saying farewell to his soulmate.
There was only a handful of mourners watching from a distance as the coffin with a single white rose was lowered into the ground by gravediggers wearing gloves.
Parish priest Gerard Alwill read prayers and undertaker Pat Blake stood nearby.
Mr Best said: “It’s breaking my heart, it’s just breaking my heart that I couldn’t be there when she died or at the funeral.”
In an interview with the Impartial Reporter newspaper, he added: “I am not going to break all the rules and walk up there and see her.
“I’m not going to do that because that would not be right; it would be selfish on all the people of Derrylin.”
He recalled how his wife began to feel unwell on Monday and by Tuesday her health had deteriorated badly.
“She said ‘I feel awful, awful sick’. There was a lot of moaning ... if you could hear someone groaning and moaning ... and she could take pain,” he added.
Mr Best explained that local doctor Michelle Mcbrien then called an ambulance.
“Michelle is brilliant, she is an angel and let no one say different. She spoke to her on the phone and said she would get an ambulance,” he added.
But he could not be by his wife’s side and later he received a phone call from a doctor at South West Acute Hospital informing him of the worst possible outcome.
“I got a call on the Wednesday night explaining that things were not looking good. I’ve been around a lot of death over the years and I can put two and two together,” he said.
“When it comes to your own door you just fall apart and that is a fact.
“I told
the
doctor
whatever you are doing you are doing your best. Then he said the next call will be the one to tell me she was gone.”
The tears rolled down his face as he tried to comprehend how he went from watching crime programmes on television with his wife and making her breakfast each morning to now being forced to mourn her loss at home on his own.
“What impact has me since she died?
“I don’t know what I can do,” he said.
“The last time I saw her was when she was being put into the ambulance and looking down and that’s it.
“It’s heartbreaking.
it had on
“I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, that is a fact.
“Maybe some good will come out of it. It’s just one of those things.
“It is unimaginable, I don’t think we have ever faced anything like this in our time, in my 77 years.
“You might wonder why I wanted to cook her breakfast and do things for her. It was simple, I loved her,” he said, folding the photograph of the couple’s wedding day in Gibraltar in 1969 and placing it back into his pocket.
“I loved her.”
❝ It is unimaginable, I don’t think we have ever faced anything like this in our time