Daughter Alex with Simon at Visakha Puja

On Tuesday afternoon as I was on my way into London I had a call to say that Simon Bromwich, a long time Forest Hermitage supporter and committee member who had just the previous Friday flown to Vietnam with Gill and their daughter for a holiday, had had a massive heart attack in Hanoi and died.

This has come as a tremendous shock to us all, not least of course to Gill and Alex to whom our hearts go out to. They are both home now. They got back on Saturday morning and Simon’s body arrived on another flight soon after, and in the evening they came to see us.

Simon had no history of heart trouble and seemed a pretty fit forty-niner. Only the other day he completed a twenty something mile walk with Tahn Manapo as a recce for a fund raising walk they were thinking of organising. And then he was at Bhavana Dhamma for a weekend retreat. This was totally unexpected and just goes to show how you can never be sure of anything.

Sad as it is, I hope – and I’m sure Simon would have hoped too – that this might be a wake-up call to not take our time for granted and not to waste it.

Simon’s funeral will be at 3 pm on Tuesday, July 29th at Oakley Wood Crematorium, the South Chapel.