When it comes to my country of origin, I become a blubbering idiot. Nothing like Hugh Grant as he has good, chiselled looks which make women weak at the knees.
No, I get to look like a relative who shall remain nameless.
Many of you will have heard that Captain Sir Tom Moore a 100-year-old war veteran, died last week. Last year he raised £33 Million (A$59 Million) for the UK National Health Service.
Prior to Covid19 he was unknown. His only claim to fame was to be on a TV show in 1983 called Blankety Blank.
He was an astonishing, incredible man.
In April 2020 whilst the world was in hiding, fearful of what was to come he asked himself a question ‘What can I do to help the NHS.’
It was not a big plan. The aim was to raise £1,000 from friends and family by walking 100 laps around his home. 100 laps were not going to be easy for one who had broken his hip, was treated for skin cancer and had both his knees replaced. Within 30 days he has raised A$59 Million. Within 6 weeks he was knighted and walked into the hearts of everyone, young and old.
Within 9 months he had become a national hero and icon not just in the UK but around the world. He emotionally touched not just my kids but many more and that’s not easy for someone several generations up.
On his 100th birthday he received an astonishing 125,000 birthday cards.
It was the care he received from the NHS that made him do this. It was his way of saying thank you to the doctors and nurses who treated him and his wife.
As a World War II veteran, he knew what it is like to be on the front line. It was now the nurses and doctors who were on the front line.
His motto was quite simple ’Tomorrow will be much better than today.’
But throughout his life there were patterns to his greatness.
He organised an annual army DWR reunion dinner for 65 years until, as he put it, “finally I was the only one answering my own invitation.”
After the war he became a builder, roofer, quarryman and door to door salesman for Women’s Own.
He married, had children and later retired to Spain and returned to the UK in 2006. He cooked lunch every Sunday and fixed the lawnmower. He rose at 6.30 every day for a breakfast of porridge and continued to enjoy sweet wine, cream and chocolate, but weighed the same as he had at 21. In his nineties he visited India and Nepal and drove a car until he was 99.
He even did a deal that delivered the concrete for the runway at Barcelona Airport.
At the age of 100, he set up the Captain Tom Foundation, designed to combat loneliness, help the bereaved and support hospices and published his autobiography, Tomorrow Will Be a Good Day, as well as a version for children, One Hundred Steps.
This was someone who ran full tilt at life.
How did he mange to do this?
It was a fairy tale, but this did not happen by accident.
This is man who aged 99 is told that he should stay at home board up his home and sit there until the pandemic goes away.
So, whilst we all sat at home waiting for our government to come up with a plan Sir Tom just asked ‘What can I do?’
He just asked a positive question and throughout his life you can see that the questions he asked determined what he did and how he lived.
He is what I call an ‘Extraordinary Ordinary person’. He did things which were extraordinary, and I think we loved him because deep down he was just ordinary. Like you and me.
For him and many of his generation, you just keep going and you don’t stop. The body may give way, but the mind can be as sharp as ever.
He is a lesson to us all.
We can be extraordinary and yet be ordinary. We can push to the next level. We only need the determination and the will to do it. It helps if you leave fear at the door too.
He will remain an icon for years to come and my only hope is that if I can be half the man he was, I’d be pretty pleased.
