Businessman tells of parents’ Covid deaths

Ayear since losing both his parents to Covid within an hour, prominent Dundee businessman Graeme Carling has spoken about his double loss.

Mr Carling, who purchased Mcgill three years ago, lost his parents Graeme and Margaret in separate Dundee hospitals on the same evening.

On January 19 2021 he watched his mother pass away at Roxburghe House after a courageous fight. As he was leaving, a nurse from Ninewells Hospital phoned to say she wanted to see more improvement from his father, who was on oxygen treatment.

By the time she returned to the ward, Mr Carling Sr was also dead.

Father-of-two Mr Carling said it has been a hard year for his family.

“For the first few months we were numb,” he said. “I think I was in shock. We’re not the only ones to have been affected by Covid but it’s not been easy. It hit hard. I think it helps we have businesses and responsibilities. It means we’re busy and don’t have time to dwell on it.

“In some ways it feels like a year but the memories of that day are so fresh it also feels like yesterday.”

Mr Carling is best known for purchasing construction firm Mcgill from administration three years ago.

After winning millions of pounds of work and making several acquisitions, the business now has more than 200 staff.

Along with his wife Leanne, he is also one of the largest private landlords in Scotland.

Mr Carling credits his father for giving him the drive to succeed. His dad worked at Dundee Plant Company Limited as a labourer then as a manager.

After a spell working as a transport manager in Dundee and Kent for Portway International, he became chief executive of North East Ice and Cold Storage in Peterhead.

“My dad dared to have ambition,” Mr Carling said. “A guy from Kirkton, he moved down to Kent for work when I was 16.

“He always had a job. Moving away for work showed his ambition and I got that from him. It broke the mould for us.”

Mr Carling said he acutely feels the loss of his father, not just personally but also professionally.

He acted as a sounding board as he resurrected Mcgill and also played a crucial role as it acquired other business, he said.

In December 2020 Mrs Carling initially went into hospital for treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung condition that causes breathing difficulties.

She was first admitted to Ninewells Hospital on December 22 at which point she had a negative Covid test.

She was discharged on Christmas Eve but when the grandmother-of-seven was readmitted on December 29 she tested positive for coronavirus.

The family believe she caught Covid-19 during her first stay at Ninewells and then passed it to her husband.

Two days before her death, she was transferred from Ninewells to Roxburghe House at Royal Victoria Hospital.

At Ninewells, Mr Carling Sr was unaware his wife of 47 years had died when he passed away.

The past year has been another one of progress for Mcgill, which has won several housing association contracts.

Mr Carling said it was always his aim to make his parents proud.

“The deaths of my parents might be an extra inspiration,” he said.

INSPIRATION: Graeme Carling Sr with his daughter-in-law Leanne Carling. He and his wife Margaret both died from Covid one year ago today.

Graeme Carling.