SA storm victim Ray Fox was to take South Pacific cruise to celebrate 50th wedding anniversary
HILLS grandmother Yvonne Fox was eagerly awaiting a South Pacific cruise with husband Ray to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Now, she is grieving his death in a tragic accident caused by the wild weather lashing the state.
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HILLS grandmother Yvonne Fox was eagerly awaiting a South Pacific cruise in just a few weeks with husband Ray to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Now she is grieving his loss after his death in a tragic accident caused by the wild weather lashing the state.
Mrs Fox found her husband pinned beneath a tree on Monday, which had fallen on top of the 71-year-old as he was clearing debris from an Adelaide Hills road.
“He loved his family. We’ve been married for nearly 50 years. We had a very good life together,” Mrs Fox told The Advertiser yesterday.
“It would’ve been (our 50th anniversary) in September. We were going to take a trip on a P&O cruise ship over to Vanuatu.
“I’m feeling rather sick actually, I think the shock has hit me a bit.”
Mr Fox leaves behind two sons Craig and Darren and two grandsons Callum, 6, and Isaac, 8, pictured as a baby with Mr Fox.
Mrs Fox described her husband as a community-orientated man who was always happy to help others with “odd jobs” — just like clearing trees from the road after this week’s storm.
“This tree had come across the road and was blocking the main road,” Mrs Fox said.
“It also came across on to our fence, and he was just trying to get it off of our fence because if there were things like that to do, he would do.”
The future of the couple’s farm at Tungkillo is in jeopardy because Mrs Fox said she would have difficulty maintaining it. She said she would have to sell their cows because she would struggle to look after them, but hoped her neighbours would help her feed them in the meantime.
“My husband always liked farming life, his parents had a farm and he’s always liked the farm life,” she said.
Prior to buying their property about 15 years ago, Mr Fox was a butcher, a trade which his son Craig followed him into.
Friends and neighbours have remembered Mr Fox as a “gentle, genuine man” and “just the best person”.
Mrs Fox called neighbour Peter Atkinson when she discovered her husband under the tree around 11am on Monday.
Mr Atkinson said his wife called 000 and he went to assist until the ambulance arrived, but it was too late.
Despite the efforts of paramedics, Mr Fox was pronounced dead at the scene on Gladigau Rd.