The widower of a mugging victim who died from her injuries has also died - less than a month after his wife.

Southampton businessman, horseman and musician, William (Cheese) Ray died in hospital on Friday morning at the age of 80.

In February 2003, his wife, Josie Ray, fell into a coma after being mugged outside Southampton Post Office. She was flown to the US and, although she regained consciousness for a brief period, she died from her injuries on September 25, 2004

In December 2003, Mr. Ray was flown overseas for treatment on an aneurysm. He returned to Bermuda nine months later, in August 2004 but died on Friday surrounded by his family.

Yesterday Mr. Ray's family said that 80 years of compassion have outshined the tragic events of recent memory, adding that, throughout his life, Mr. Ray never let the hard times get him down.

“Soon after our brother Paul Brent, was born our mother passed away, leaving Papa a young widower with three small children and a fledgling business,” his daughters Sharon Davis and Donna Pink said.

“Throughout those first difficult years he made us feel loved, safe and secure and made us his top priority. Several years later, he met and married Josie McGrath,” they said.

From 1941 to 1944, Mr. Ray was enlisted in the Bermuda Police.

He loved local carriages and for over 45 years, his collection included the Government House landau, the St. James' church hearse and a Victoria carriage belonging to the late Mrs. Bernard Wilkinson.

“I made my living with motor cars but I could never love a motor car,” Mr. Ray said when interviewed by The Mid-Ocean News in 2001.

“I find one of these carriages sitting in someone's barn rotting and deteriorating and all I want to do is take it home and fix it up,” he said.

In 1998, Mr. Ray won the Visitor Industry Partnership's Sunshine Award for going above and beyond the call of duty for visitors.

Premier Alex Scott this weekend led tributes to Mr. Ray saying that the pair had become great friends in the last two years when Mr. Ray visited him in hospital.

“He used to visit me every time he visited his wife,” the Premier said. “The thing that impressed me most was that he always gave of himself. He was a man of great stature with a big heart. Not many people know this, but he asked me to find a job for Tyrone Brangman (the man who mugged Mrs. Ray). I do not know anyone else other than Mr. Ray who would have done that. And he actually did get the fellow a job. He was bigger than life and loved to tell jokes.”

Mrs. Davis said that, even in the hospital, when the nurses told him how good he looked, his reply was “I can't help that ... it runs in my family”.

Radio host David Lopes said: “Cheese was the kindest individual I have ever met.

“He was always out to help people who needed help. Just before he had his aneurysm he used to come to my house every Saturday to see my horses. He used to bring two fellows with him. One who had lost his sight and an older fellow. He used to take them out to lunch every Saturday. He always liked to go out to eat. I wonder how many times those guys have been taken out to lunch since?”

But Mr. Lopes thought that Mr. Ray's “greatest achievement was the fact that he had a physically challenged child. Paul lives right on the mainstream. Paul used to work with his Dad at the garage and drive at the pony shows. He is pretty much a self sufficient individual. Cheese deserves an awful lot of credit for that,” Mr. Lopes said.

Trattoria restaurant owner Nicky Russo said that Mr. Ray would always came into his Hamilton restaurant smoking a pipe.

“I used to joke with him I was going to use the dirty dish water to extinguish his pipe,” Mr. Russo said.

“Afterwards he would joke that he had to get back to work this week to pay for the meal he just had. He used to try and steal my pen and I used to try and steal his. He cheered up the place every time he came in.”

In another interview for the Mid-Ocean News in 1998 Mr. Ray said: “My brother and I started out painting automobiles in a little tin shack. Then I bought property on St. John's Road in Pembroke. We built the show room and started selling Simca automobiles from France. It just grew and grew and grew”.

What later became known as Ray Brothers became one of the first and largest car dealerships in Bermuda.

Mechanic Michael Smith still works for Mr. Rays' family.

“I started with Mr. Ray when I was 15 years old,” Mr. Smith said. “Now I'm 54. Mr. Ray was a very good man. He liked to help people and he will be missed. All that I know has been through him,” he said.

Mr. Ray had six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

His grandson, Daniel Greenslade, found himself with his pants down on his wedding day when the rental shop forgot to put his tuxedo trousers in with everyone else's.

“What are the chances, but out of eight people there were no trousers for the groom and the rental shop was closed,” Mrs. Davis said. “The only person who would have had trousers to fit a six-foot seven-inch tall man would have been my father. And in Daniels' speech he said that his grandfather had helped him his whole life, even today. He is not here, but he is still helping me.”

Mrs. Davis and Ms Pink spoke about their father's reaction his wife's mugging.

“Papa had a favourite saying when he used to pick up tourists in his carriage and they wanted to pay him, he'd say ‘I have got plenty of money, its time I need',” Mrs. Davis said.

“Aneurysms happen to lots of people who are elderly. No doubt it put a lot of stress on him. It made him very sad when he realised that he and Josie were going to spend their final years apart. She was his partner for 40 years. But he certainly did forgive Mr. Brangman.”

His family have forgiven Mr. Brangman and said they only felt gratitude at Mr. Ray's last gift to them, one more year with him to say goodbye.

“He used to say ‘I only worry about two days a week- yesterday and tomorrow',” they said. “Or when referring to something that had happened that could not to be changed or fixed he would say, ‘Well, that's a cancelled cheque- tomorrow is a promissory note'.”