Eddie Large’s widow, Patsy McGinnis, has recalled her final conversation with the comedian, who died on April 2 after contracting coronavirus.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain from their home in Bristol, she said: “I wanted to talk to him longer but he said ‘Darling, I am going to have to go now’.
“I said ‘Don’t worry, love – I will speak to you in the morning’ but that wasn’t to be as in the early hours of the morning – at about four o’clock – they rang to say he had passed away and we couldn’t be with him.
“I never thought it would end like this, I really didn’t, and I know a lot of families are going through the same thing. It is such a terrible time.
“But I wish we could have been with him and even when we… Trying to get a funeral together, we still won’t be able to see him. It’s heartbreaking.
“There is so much love out there for him and it has been overwhelming and so comforting. I know Eddie would be over the moon.”
Large’s son, Ryan McGinnis, told Good Morning Britain that coronavirus was the “final straw” for his father.
He said: “He deteriorated quite quickly after getting the coronavirus. There were other things going on but that was really the final straw and he wasn’t strong enough to fight that off.
“I guess a blessing in a way is that we see these videos and we hear all these stories of other people going through and suffering with the virus.
“But thankfully Dad never got to the point where it was absolutely the worst, with the ventilation and the horror stories you see.
“Dad didn’t quite get to that part, which is a blessing in a way.”
