Dean Smith has explained how he was able to be by his late father’s side as he passed away last month. The Aston Villa manager lost his dad, Ron, who had lived with dementia and then contracted coronavirus earlier in lockdown, but after he was moved to a care home following a spell in hospital Smith and his mother were able to visit him. Ron, a lifelong Villa fan who was a Villa Park steward and who witnessed Villa lift the European Cup in 1982, was 79 years old at the time of his death. Smith, who has spoken previously of his father and the influence he had on becoming a Villan himself, added that his father was at least now at peace.
Dean Smith said “Timing is never good to lose a parent but he is probably in a better place now because he hadn’t been well for a long time so it was one of those things you have to deal with, He was in the care home when he contracted coronavirus but he was asymptomatic and then three days later we had a call that he had been taken to hospital by paramedics and obviously it was tough for my mum because she couldn’t see him for 11 weeks. But he ended up coming out to a nursing home and we were allowed to go and see him in our full PPE at the moment he passed.”
