The Best of Britain

I notice my FB is filled with my UK friends paying tribute to Captain Sir Tom Moore today. I had heard yesterday that he had been taken into hospital having pneumonia then testing positive for Covid. I was afraid in his frail state Covid would take him. He touched so many people during the past year. A message of hope, resiliency, and humanity against Covid. What an amazing story.

He was traveling in Britain this summer, albeit with a walker, and walking back and forth, and that was inspiring to those of us who couldn’t be there. And raising money for charity in the process!

May he definitely rest in peace, CJean, and may we all be able to contribute - even a little - like he.

He was an amazing man and his story really gripped the country, giving us a much needed lift. We were all rooting for him and were delighted when he was knighted by the Queen. He was an inspiration to many others from grannies climbing stairs to the equivalent of Ben Nevis, to youngsters with walking difficulties.

There is a clap to remember and commemorate Capt Sir Tom at 6pm tonight.

We had a weekly clap for the NHS during the summer, so this is a lovely gesture.

A truly good soul. He was an inspiration to many. He took the opportunity to make a difference for the positive. He beautifully exemplifies for me a basic concept of Judaism...”Tikkun Olam”, or “repair the world”. He left the world a better place than he found it. Kudos to him and condolences to the loved ones he leaves behind.

I appreciate the good work that he did, over the decades, and how sad it is for his family, but as someone who lost my 92 year old uncle to Covid last summer I'm not comfortable with special treatments that some get that is not available to the ordinary.

My uncle also got ill with an unrelated illness - in his case in a care home - and got pneumonia and was taken to hospital where he acquired Covid and died.

Somewhat similar to Captain Tom, who was 100, 8 years older than my uncle, who had had pneumonia for a few weeks, had trouble breathing, acquired Covid, was admitted to hospital and died.

But that's where the differences come in... my cousin who lived a handful of miles from her father's care home, was not allowed to even see or visit her father after lockdown began, and she wasn't allowed to see him in hospital or even after he died. That was the same as virtually everybody in this country, and next of kin are still not allowed in hospital until the last moments and then only one person. When my uncle was buried 7 weeks later I wasn't allowed to travel to his funeral, and only a total of 5 immediate family were allowed by law.

What made me so upset yesterday was watching the news and seeing that his entire family was with him when he died. Over 100,000 people have died here from this plague and the vast majority have had no opportunity to be with their relative in their final moments, yet his whole family was there?

I just wonder why there is one way of things for most and another for a few? That makes me really angry.

I'm afraid that I didn't think much of the clapping, and I didn't hear any of it in my town.

As far as not deserving it or being a hero, my uncle used to cross the road from his pub to the church and climb all the way up the church tower every week to hand wind the church clock and wind up the chimes. Every single week - for something like 50 years. On his own. And he was in the army during the war.

My cousin, like me, is very upset. We just want people treated the same.

Nigel, I'm sorry for your loss. Many of us have lost loved ones to the pandemic in the last year. Some were unsung local heroes. Some were simply regular people living their lives as best they could. And the COVID restrictions have made those losses even harder, although they vary from place to place and at different times. But I am also sorry that you begrudge the accolades that Captain Tom received in life and in death, from people who found inspiration in what he did.

I don't mind the accolades, and I got a kick out of the Spitfire flypast on his 100th birthday. I really was inspired by 100 laps of his garden. He was the right person at the right time for what we needed as a country.

What I do mind is the special treatment that allows certain people to disregard the controls put on everybody else. How many other families of Covid patients were allowed to gather around the bed of their loved one at Bedford hospital? How did that make others suffering feel? And the families of those suffering?

Nigel, the only family I have seen pictures with him are those of his daughter, son in law and grandchildren who he lived with and therefore would be considered his family bubble and allowed to be with him. He didn't receive any special treatment above the well deserved recognition for his efforts. My grandparents survived the atrocities of German concentration camps but they weren't honoured in any way by the public when they passed but why would they? They didn't raise £33m for the NHS during a period of worry and uncertainty which was pastered all across the media for everyone to see, that's why.

Just to add to Sir Tom’s cool factor: when he got home post war, he raced motorcycles!