Rob Rinder’s moving tribute to ‘funny, beautifully flawed’ dad

TV personality and barrister Rob Rinder has paid a moving tribute to his father, who has died aged 73 after suffering from Lewy body dementia.

Rinder said his father, a London cabbie and lifelong Tottenham Hotspur supporter, died surrounded by his family after spending the final years of his life being cared for by Jewish Care.

Announcing his death on Instagram, Rinder said he had initially been unsure whether to speak publicly about his loss but hoped doing so would raise awareness of the little-understood form of dementia.

He wrote: “My dad died yesterday aged 73. I wasn’t sure whether to share this but if it brings attention to an illness too few people understand, perhaps it belongs here.

“A London cabbie & lifelong Spurs supporter, he was there for every one of my brothers’ and his grandsons’ football matches. I once represented him at the Carriage Office for bad driving; I loved him but the prosecution had a case…”

Rinder, 48, described the differences between the pair during his formative years growing up in Southgate and recalled his father’s reaction when he came out as gay.

“My parents divorced when I was little so I did not grow up with him at home. We were very different men. I loved opera and all its drama; he loved Tottenham and cigarettes. We both took people as we found them and we both loved women, though in rather different ways. I never once doubted his pride in me. When I came out he responded with magnificent indifference: I was still his son, there was nothing else to discuss.”

Rinder also paid tribute to the staff at Jewish Care, where his father spent the final years of his life.

“In the last years of his life Jewish Care became his home, a place where dignity and tenderness were practised every day. Walid and Tosin, among so many others there, cared for him and came to kiss him goodbye. A Jewish man, held in his final days by people of different faiths: a quiet reminder that what is sacred in us is also what we share. He died with his family around him, loved and held to the last.

“Funny, beautifully flawed, loving and my dad.”

Rinder said Lewy body dementia had taken his father “far too young” and urged people to become more aware of the condition and its symptoms.

“Lewy body dementia took him far too young. It made the familiar strange and the certain uncertain. Dementia can obscure a person but it does not erase them. At least one in ten people living with dementia has Lewy body’s, around 125,000 people in the UK yet it remains poorly understood, frequently missed & desperately under-researched. Please learn its name, learn its signs and if you can support the work to change that.”

Daniel Carmel-Brown, chief executive of Jewish Care, said: “Rob’s words are a wonderful tribute to his dad and a powerful reminder of the impact dementia has on individuals and families. It was a privilege for us to care for David and to support his family. Our thoughts are with Rob and all the family at this time. May his memory be a blessing.”