A SISTER of the late Basil Elliott has paid tribute to her supportive big brother, who she described as an “absolute gentleman”.

Basil (79), a resident of Meadow View Care Home, formerly of Fairview Avenue, Enniskillen, passed away peacefully on December 7 after contracting Covid-19 following a long period of ill-health.

Describing Basil as an “absolute gentleman”, Anne Elliott-King spoke highly of her late brother, who was like a “father-figure” to her and her two sisters.

“He was very supportive to us all; we couldn’t have asked for better. He was always there,” she said, adding: “Some years ago, I went through breast cancer chemo and radiotherapy, and when I was alone in the house he would have come out and just sat in the house just to be there in case I needed him.”

During his working life, Basil was an employee of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, where he drove a small bin lorry for many years.

“He’d be out around the countryside and laybys,” explained Anne, noting that “the whole country knew him”.

“Previous to that, he worked in Standard Telephones as a security man,” she said.

Basil had a great interest in Northern Ireland’s motorbike culture and a motorbike was his first vehicle. “For his 70th birthday, I brought him up to the Joey Dunlop memorial garden. He would have went to the North West 200 most of his life, with his uncles, Tommy and Cecil,” said Anne.

“He also had an amazing interest in Country and Western music. He was a lifelong fan of Charley Pride, and he had a wonderful collection of LPs,” she added.

Over the past seven years, Basil was diagnosed with a number of health issues, including Dementia.

Anne said: “I never once heard him complain. Never once. Myself and my husband cared for him at home, along with my sisters, Violet and Joyce, for as long as we could; that was 24/7.

“Unfortunately, it was then deemed unsafe for him to stay at home because of the stairs and his dementia,” she said, going on to explain that it was Basil’s own decision to move into Meadow View, where he embraced the Care Home “almost like a new family”.

“The girls [care home staff] were absolutely wonderful. If you said [to Basil], ‘How are you?’ he’d say, ‘I’m the best, they can’t do enough for me here’. The district nurses were wonderful as well,” noted Anne.

“All the times Basil was in hospital, we visited him every day. In the home, one of us would have visited him every day, pre-Covid. The hardest thing with Covid was some days he wouldn’t quite understand.

“He would say, ‘Are you not coming up?’” she said.

Basil’s final days were spent in the South West Acute Hospital as he battled Covid-19.

“We were unable to go into Ward Eight, because it is the Covid ward, but I can’t tell you how good the staff were. After a phone call on the Thursday prior to his death, myself and Don had a WhatsApp video call to the ward, and then Monday of last week, we had another one at 1pm.

“I don’t know if he heard us or not, the nurses said he did. It was heartbreaking. I so wanted to hold his hand,” said an emotional Anne.

Arranged by John McKeegan Funeral Director, Basil’s funeral cortège travelled along Fairview Avenue past Basil’s home and on to Breandrum Cemetery on December 9, where there was a small service by the graveside led by Dean Kenneth Hall.

“Dean Hall was such a support to us. We, as a family, gave up a [hospital] visit to Dean Hall, and he went up and said the prayers beside Basil, and I’ll never forget him for that,” said Anne.

“Basil had a wonderful sense of humour, and Dean Hall has as well, and they just got on. Basil always told a story about a man who went to his GP and he was told he was terminally ill, and he only had so much time left, and the man said back to the GP, ‘Ah well, I’ll not die until I can’t help it’.

“He loved to tell that story, and the Dean quoted that at the graveside.”

Beloved son of the late Winifred (Winnie), and loved and cherished brother of Violet Jones, Anne Elliott-King (Don) and Joyce McClintock (Charlie), Basil’s death is deeply regretted by his sorrowing sisters, nieces, nephews, extended family, friends and neighbours.

“I’ll miss seeing him. He always smiled. Whenever you’d go into the house he’d say, ‘Well’. He’d never say hello, but out in the home the girls [staff] would bring him to the window, and he’d always have had a big smile and wave,” Anne told this newspaper.