Jeffrey John Joseph Wilson

Jeff worked for more than 30yrs in Retail Management Co-op. Latterly worked for Pearce as retail development manager South West. Jeff loved and played Green Bowls for more than 20 yrs at the local bowling club at Ardagh Green. Jeff also liked to travel especially cruising and we travelled as far as Hawaii, Alaska, Greece, Croatia and the Mediterranean. We managed to celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary 2013 with a cruise to Hawaii before sadly suffering a stroke a couple of weeks after his 65th birthday when he was just going to reduce his working week to 3 days in preparation for retirement in the spring.     Jeff and I were married 12th May 1973 and we had two children Darren born 1976 and Donna born 1977. The family grew and we had six grandchildren over the last 13 yrs and we loved nothing more than seeing and being with our families. We were great family-minded people and family meant the most to us. It was so hard for all of us when Jeff was stuck down so suddenly in 2013 with a massive brain stem haemorrhage and we nearly lost him. We all fought together and Jeff was so great fighting so hard to stay with us – although not at home but in the hospital/ rehab unit. Jeff, unfortunately, was left with numerous problems – after needing to have a tracheostomy within two days of a stroke to save his life. He still had to cope with his left side extremely weak, right side weak, double vision and eyes bouncing, Although unable to stand or walk without support and help he did manage to relearn to talk to us with some difficulty, managed to help wash in the shower, play with the grandchildren etc. We visited him in Gloucester (70mile round trip) rehab unit numerous times a week, which was really hard for us all leaving each other and being apart especially at special times like birthdays, Xmas, anniversaries. Jeff was at his best in early 2020 and started to try colouring. Really hard but he was enjoying the challenge. Lockdown came and we were parted except by Facetime on the iPads. Jeff hated being parted and couldn’t imagine not seeing me at least every other day except on the screen. He worried about us all and only kept saying when would we be able to see him again in person. Jeff struggled so much when he suddenly got Covid and tried so hard to stay with us but he already had so many problems and so sadly passed away 05/05/2020. It broke our hearts that we could not be there to hold his hand, although we were on FaceTime as much as we were allowed. Jeff passed away 1 week before our 47th wedding anniversary. During lockdown Jeff made us promise not to go anywhere near the unit if they contracted Covid and not to send him to the hospital. It hurt so much to spend our wedding anniversary arranging his funeral. Jeff had a simple funeral- alone due to all the restrictions and conditions at that time. We all had our own minutes of silence at the same time but it was so cruel not to be altogether. Nearly a year on we are still in the same conditions and still, apart from our only hopes are that Jeff is now at peace and watching over us and keeping us safe.