Robert Taylor Hey – 17th November 2018, aged 93
Robert joined the staff in January 1965, on the same day as Charles Taylor, and they became close friends. Each year their two families would visit Cromer for a holiday. On Thursday 6th December 2018 Charles spoke movingly at Robert’s funeral, in St Edmundsbury Cathedral, recalling Robert’s great love of music, and their friendship. Robert’s son Richard then delivered his eulogy. It was one of the most eloquent that I can remember. Here is Richard’s final anecdote, which perfectly illustrates the kind of person Robert was.
“My last recollection of my father explains why we are here in this building today. One day when I was quite old and should have left the nest, I was moaning to my father about house prices. How was I ever going to afford a house when they cost (even around here) 5-10 thousand pounds? My dad, ever the optimist, said “come on, hop into the car and we will go and look”. Once we had set off he explained “because you have building skills, we will go and find a wreck of a house – cheap! And you can do it up!” Well, we arrived at Poslingford (a village near Clare). We stopped outside a pair of old cottages. Roof falling in, windows falling out, and garden completely overgrown. Perfect.
Walking around to the back of the house, we noticed the door was slightly open. The room was full of smoke not going up the chimney. An old stump or root was pushed into the fire, but not really burning. Through the smoke came the foulest language I have ever heard. The swearing was every other word. A very angry man was saying, “I fought in the war for this country, l worked all my life – look at me now – reduced to this, I have a bad leg and you come here in your fancy car!!” Knowing how my father hated swearing, l thought we should make a run for it – the man looked angry, and I left dad there.
I sat in Dad ‘s car (an old Morris Traveller) for what seemed like an age. Then through the drizzle came dad, with the man in a completely changed mood. He was holding my father’s hand, patting him on the back, smiling and even waving to me!
Dad got back into the car and we slowly drove off. It took until we were nearly home, before I found out how dad had transformed that man. “Oh, I just opened my pockets and wallet and gave him what I had.” My father would give anybody anything he had if he felt they needed it more than he did. He had a perfect sense of empathy to his fellow man. He would be embarrassed at me recounting this incident. But I learnt by example, what a true Christian is.”
There is nothing anyone could add to that.