A Brit sent a final message home from Thailand telling his grandkids “I love you” just an hour a car mounted the pavement and killed him.
Doting Ralph Chambers, 68, was enjoying a drink with his friend outside a bar when the driver swerved to avoid a dog and ploughed into Ralph.
Close pal Tony Walden, who had swapped seats with him moments earlier, survived the horror smash on December 28 but Ralph died at the scene.
Ralph’s three daughters Rae, 42, Laura, 36, and Jemma, 29, said they feel lost without their dad who had four grandchildren.
Laura, mother to Lily, eight, Lucas, six, and baby Leo who is just 10-weeks-old, said: “He texted me an hour before and said ‘Tell the grandkids I love them.”
The teacher, from Quedgeley, Glos., has spent the last few months planning her dream wedding in Mauritius to Royal Marine partner Oliver Snowdon.
The death of her father means he won’t be there to walk her down the aisle when she ties the knot next month.
The couple considered cancelling the wedding but say it will still go ahead and they plan to scatter Ralph’s ashes in the sea in tribute to him.
Writing from her home in Australia, Ralph’s oldest daughter Rae said: “Dad was a man that you couldn’t help liking – he had a way of making a person feel like they were the only one in a crowd.
“He made you feel so special.
“He was funny. I still use his mushroom joke (why am I cooking mushrooms in the grill? Well because there’s not mushroom in the pan) then he would crack up and say ‘It’s the way I tell ’em!’
“My son, Julio, shakes his head every time I say it but I guarantee he will be saying it to his kids. I already feel lost without him and would give the earth to have him back.”
Jemma, a physio, and Laura said their dad, who was from Brockworth, Glos. as ‘strong, reliable and fearlessly loyal.’
They have been told that the young Thai driver involved in the crash in the Chon Buri province south east of Bangkok has visited Tony in hospital every day since.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We are providing support to the family of a British man who sadly died in Thailand and remain in contact with the local Thai authorities.”
Ralph’s funeral will be held in his hometown after his family have repatriated his body.
