A RIVERLAND grandfather is being remembered as a good friend, larrikin and wonderful husband who was at his happiest spending time with friends and family.
Malcolm ‘Mal’ Todd, 76, lost his battle against COVID-19 earlier this month after two weeks in the intensive care unit of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
His wife, Sandi, was in isolation at their home in Barmera, but spoke to him via video conference before he passed.
“What I could see was only half the size of a screen on a mobile phone,” she said.
“But at least we could see him and talk to him, even though he was in a coma and couldn’t see us… but it wasn’t long after that before he was gone.”
Mrs Todd said Mal loved to camp, caravan and boat, look after his dog Gracie, and spend time with loved ones.
“Mal was a quiet person, but he was always there lending a hand to people,” she said.
“I think he was never happier than when we were caravanning, boating or just sitting around the campfire with friends and having a yarn and a drink.
“For Mal, that was relaxation, just relaxing with friends, especially along the side of the river or in the bush.
“He was a really good friend to people.
“He wasn’t all gung-ho and out there but he was a bit of a larrikin underneath, and he loved to have a bit of a joke and get up to mischief.”
Mr Todd grew up in Loxton, where he got his first job as a diesel mechanic apprentice, before entering the tourism industry as a coach captain.
He met Sandi in Adelaide in 1986, with the pair marrying two years later.
They had their 32nd wedding anniversary on April 4, while Mr Todd was in intensive care.
“He’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” Mrs Todd said.
“He was always there and everything he did he did for me… I’ve even had friends say to me ‘everything Mal does he does for you’.
“He was a wonderful husband and a good mate.”
Mr and Mrs Todd lived in Alice Springs for 20 years where they had their own tour business.
The couple bought a houseboat in 2014 and lived on it for four years, travelling up and down the Murray River with a permanent mooring and base at Ral Ral Creek.
In 2018, they moved into their house in Barmera.
“Living in central Australia without any water, you really appreciate when you have a river with water in it,” Mrs Todd said.
“We were members of the Riverland Cruising Boat Club, the River Murray Boat Owners Association and the Wooden Boat Association of South Australia.
“We still have a cabin cruiser that we use a bit, and we do a couple of dinghy dawdles every year.”
“Through those boating clubs we’ve made some really wonderful friends in the Riverland.”
Mr Todd had three stepchildren and six grandchildren.
“He looked at them as his children and has been like a father to them, and they think the world of him,” Mrs Todd said.
Mr and Mrs Todd travelled to the Barossa Valley in mid-March to catch up with Mrs Todd’s son, Craig Penlington.
Mr Penlington, who is a top chef in Switzerland, was hosting a Swiss tour group visiting Lyndoch Hill winery.
All three contracted COVID-19 and were part of a cluster of 40 cases linked to the winery.
“It wasn’t until the next week that they started talking about social distancing, so it just never occurred to us that there was a risk,” Mrs Todd said.
“If we’d had the slightest inkling, especially with Mal’s medical history (he was eight years removed from triple bypass surgery and was a diabetic) there’s no way in the world we would have gone there.”
A week after the trip to the Barossa, Mr Todd began to develop symptoms.
Two days later, he was flown to the Royal Adelaide Hospital and be admitted into ICU.
Mrs Todd was unable to see Mr Todd in-person for the two-and-a-half weeks he spent in the RAH as she was in mandatory isolation in Barmera.
“It was just awful,” she said.
“(When he had triple bypass surgery) he was in an induced coma and on a breathing machine for five days, and I was able to be by his bed from sunrise until quite late every day.”
“But this time, I knew what was happening to him, but I couldn’t be there with him, and that was awful.”
After more than three weeks in isolation, Mrs Todd finally tested negative to COVID-19 last Wednesday.
“It’s been three weeks, but it seems like a lifetime ago,” she said.
“You look back and you just can’t believe that all of this has happened.”
Mrs Todd hopes to return to her role as a school bus driver in Glossop.
She said people need to continue to show caution and heed social distancing requirements.
“I keep pushing how devastating this virus can be if it’s in your family, and to lose a family member to it,” she said.
“I get a little frustrated when I hear people complaining about the inconvenience of self-isolating and all of that, and I think if only they realised how shattering this can be when it’s your family that’s involved in it.
“People just don’t fully comprehend how deadly and how quickly it can get you, and you can’t go backwards – once you’ve got it, you’ve got it.
“Stay home, be careful and keep safe.”