A final farewell to John and Gail
Mourners line streets for joint funeral:
MOURNERS lined the streets in Aberdare last Thursday as the joint funeral procession for a husband and wife who both died with Covid stopped outside the pub they’d run together for years.
Friends of John and Gail Evill, along with regulars of the Conway Inn, gathered to pay their last respects to the couple, who’d been well known faces behind the bar in town until they ended up in Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil just before Christmas after developing severe breathing problems.
Pub landlord John, 62, first fell ill on December 10, although his initial symptoms did not seem to be coronavirus related.
A week later his GP advised him to go into hospital but he refused, telling Gail: “There’s Covid in hospital and I don’t want to catch it.”
But his blood oxygen levels continued to drop and he was eventually admitted, followed by Gail herself a few days later.
As John’s condition deteriorated he was placed in intensive care where he died on January 2.
Gail, 53, who suffered with asthma, was at his bedside as doctors switched off his ventilator.
Less than a fortnight later, on January 15, she also died with coronavirus, after spending her last days in a neighbouring ward organising an undertaker, coffin and flowers for John’s send-off.
Her final Facebook message to well-wishers following her husband’s death read: “Thank you to each and every one of you. I’m still fighting this virus and I hope to be home very soon.”
Hundreds of tributes subsequently flooded in for the pair, who’d been married since 2014, prompting their families to decide on halting yesterday’s procession outside the Conway so those unable to attend their joint funeral service due to current Covid restrictions could say their final goodbyes.
The cortege of cars then continued on to Llwydcoed Crematorium.
John’s brother Charles Evill previously stated that he hoped the couple’s ashes would be scattered together at sea.
“John used to work as a trawlerman back in the day and always wanted to be buried at sea but, given all the current rules and regulations regarding Covid, it looks like we’ll have to rethink that,” he said.
“I’m going to talk to Gail’s family about the possibility of both their ashes being scattered together.
“They had a place in Malta that they’d recently bought with their savings but never got the chance to actually enjoy. Both of them loved the island, so off the coast there seems like the obvious choice.”