‘I WASN’T GOING TO GIVE IN TO IT’
Evan beat Covid and celebrated his 100th birthday
NOT many people make it until their 100th birthday, and not many can say that they did just that, as well as beating coronavirus. But Evan James beat the odds and celebrated his 100th birthday on Thursday – the first time he’d seen much of his family in more than a year.
“I overcame it, they thought that would be the end of me but I wasn’t going to give into it, and I didn’t,” he said.
Evan, who was born in Ynyshir and raised his family in Pontygwaith, in the Rhondda, said he caught the virus in hospital earlier this year and made a full recovery after receiving some respite care in a nursing home before being moved back to his independent living home in Ty Heulog, Pontyclun.
The secret to Evan’s successful life? Eating healthy, not drinking alcohol, not smoking, and going dancing with his wife of 75 years, Glenys James.
He and Glenys married on February 2, 1952. Speaking lovingly about his wife, who passed away a few years ago, he said: “I never in my life thought I would live to be 100, my wife used to say to me ‘What will you do? What will I do?’ and she used to say, there is a Ronan Keating song, ‘If tomorrow never comes, how can I face this world without you?’ And I said I can say the same to you.
“Because we were close together. I was hoping we could die the same day, that is what my wish was. That was the biggest sorrow of my life.”
One other thing Evan said he was grateful for was his mind: “Thank God my brain is still good,” he said.
On the pandemic, Evan said he had never experienced anything like it in his whole life, despite living through the World War II.
When asked what it has been like not being able to see his family as much as he would like this last year, Evan said: “Punishing, punishing that I can’t see my own two daughters as often as I liked, to see them through a window and talk to them, it has been very hurtful. And my grandchildren, it has been very hurtful, and I love all of them.”
Evan worked for British Airways as an engineer for the best part of 50 years of his life before he retired.
He enjoyed many of the perks of working for the company and holidayed in Hong Kong, Switzerland, Florida, Italy and Barbados.
Evan described how he remembers the terrible poverty he saw in Barbados, and recalled how he watched protesters pull down Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol, adding: “He had a lot to do with it.”
However, for Evan, the most beautiful part of the world is Tenby. He said: “I’ve been to many places, and Tenby is just as wonderful.”