A MEMORIAL bench has been unveiled by the neighbours of a great-grandfather who passed away after contracting coronavirus at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

Alexander Shanks died on April 18, less than two weeks after picking up Covid-19.

Only eight family members were allowed to attend the funeral at Cardross crematorium on May 5 but neighbours and friends installed a fitting tribute to Alex and wife Pat – who died in 2013 – outside their home of almost 40 years in the village of Kilcreggan.

Daughter Linda said she had been planning a celebration of her father’s life once lockdown restrictions permit for everyone who was unable to make the funeral, and she was taken aback when the neighbours beat her to it.

“They outdid me,” she said.

“I didn’t know what to expect when I was told to come to the house and when I walked round the corner every neighbour was out at their gates. Gerry Deery and Pete Murphy took the tarpaulin off and that beautiful bench was sitting under it.

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“I had no idea. I hadn’t been up much since he passed away.

"I was absolutely gobsmacked.”

Mr Shanks had been in the Katrine ward for dementia patients at the Vale hospital since July 2019 and the last time Linda saw her father was on his 79th birthday in February.

“It was a total shock to hear that he’d caught it [Covid-19] in hospital,” Linda said, “because the ward had been locked down since the end of February.

“On the Saturday morning I phoned them just to see how he was and they said that he was fine, he was sitting at the side of his bed having a cup of tea, then within about three or four minutes I got a call saying that he’d taken a turn for the worse and he wasn’t going to come through the end of the day.

“He passed away at quarter past eight at night. That’s how quick it was.”