Community helps to give Richie a heartfelt farewell
THE BRADY FAMILY and the wider community are still coming to terms with the loss of Richard (Richie) Brady, who passed away peacefully on May 6 in Wexford General Hospital after a battle with Covid-19.
The 66-year-old Riverchapel man was a devoted father and grandfather, and had been married to this beloved Margaret for 35 years.
A quiet man, he was much loved by his many family members and friends, and the community in Riverchapel and Courtown honoured him with a special guard of honour on the day of his funeral earlier this month. Lining the streets of Riverchapel Lawns on a sunny Saturday afternoon, music played as Richard left home for the final time.
Richard’s daughter Caroline thanked the community of Courtown and Riverchapel for all they did for them during an incredibly difficult time that began for them in late March.
‘To those who came out for us it’s greatly appreciated it and it won’t be forgotten. My dad would have been delighted and mortified as he was so shy but it was as much as we could do. The way he was taken from us, we were not really able to give him the send-off that he did deserve.
‘We had to pick who was to be at the service, and that was our biggest worry. You feel like you’ve no support but when I saw the turn out on the day of the funeral, it meant a lot. My daughter ran up and asked if Grandad was famous, asking why are all the people were there’.
Caroline also thanked the staff and the ICU team at Wexford General Hospital, where Richard spent the last month of his life.
‘They tried everything and he just was not responding to treatment. He was weened off medication so we had time to get all the family together, my brother even got home from Australia and my dad’s sister came from Dublin. We were allowed in two at a time, but once we all got in and he had seen everyone, he just went and it was very peaceful in the end.
‘The staff let us play his music and it was nice to know that he went with the ones he loved around him and not just strangers, even though he wasn’t conscious,’ she said.
On the day of Richard’s funeral, the family decided together to wear matching t-shirts to honour him.
‘Everything was really personal and so beautiful but it’s very hard. A few months down the line he’ll get a proper send off and we’ll have closure’.
Caroline said that she is finding it difficult seeing so many people out around the locality, as if Covid-19 is no longer here. She described feeling angry and frustrated.
‘I just want to tell people to cop on and not be so laid back about it, as they’ll soon realise when it lands on their own doorstep. In Courtown, the beach car parks are closed off but the other day I saw that the cones were moved so everyone could drive down to the beach.
‘It’s as if none of this is happening, and they aren’t thinking about the families that are going through this. They are not thinking of the danger that they are putting their own family members in either. It’s an insult to families like mine who have lost someone, as my dad’s passing is the reality of Covid-19,’ she said.
Richard Brady, late of Riverchapel Lawns, Courtown and formerly of Wellingtonbridge, Wexford, and Blanchardstown, Dublin passed away on May 6.
Loving father of the late Shane and Louise and brother of the late Agnes, he is sadly missed by his wife Margaret, son Richard, daughters Lisa, Gillian, Michelle and Caroline, brother Kevin, sister Catherine, grandchildren Stephen, Dylan, Adam, Sophie, Alex, Louise, Conor, Cathal and Ava-Lily. Louise, in-laws, nieces, nephews, extended family, relatives and friends.
May he Rest In Peace.