We were saddened to learn that Roy Thompson, Bromsberrow Heath’s oldest resident, passed away on 31st January.  This was only a few weeks short of what would have been his 101st birthday.  Our condolences extend to his family and friends.

I will not write an obituary here: anyone interested in knowing about his very interesting life can find out more from the Portal article celebrating his 100th birthday on 29th February 2020.  Roy had intended to hold further parties during 2020 because there wasn’t room in his home to invite all those he had wanted to on the day.  Sadly, Covid (or more precisely, Covid restrictions) prevented these other gatherings taking place.  I am privileged to have been counted as one of Roy’s close friends to celebrate with him on his great day.

Suffice it to say, Roy did not die of Covid: he died because of Covid.  I say this because he became increasingly lonely during the last 10 months of his life because Covid restrictions prevented his friends (including me) visiting.  The last time I saw him was in November 2020, by which time he was clearly suffering from dementia, almost certainly brought on by his enforced isolation.  I had considered several times ignoring lockdown rules because the risk to his mental health from having no visitors was greater than the remote possibly of his catching Covid from me.  I phoned a few times since: each time he seemed less ‘with it’ - which is so sad considering that, until shortly after Boris locked everyone (except his mate Dom) down, Roy was a bright as a button.

There must be many other sad deaths for similar reasons, which have not figured in any statistics.