THE daughter of a missing Tipperary man fears her father may be suffering from memory loss and has appealed for help to ensure his safe return home.
Andrew Goldsboro vanished last week after stepping outside his home in Leagrave, Luton, to have a cigarette before going to bed.
After a cold, wet week that brought no developments in the frantic search for the 78-year-old, his family are struggling to come to terms with his disappearance.
“This is just a nightmare,” daughter Nuala Goldsboro told The Irish Post. “We are worried and it is the not knowing that has been so hard. It is very difficult because we have nothing to go on.
"There has not been any official sighting that we could match up with CCTV. So we have no idea which way he has gone or where he is.”
Mr Goldsboro was last seen by his wife Bernadette, a Donegal native, at 7.15pm on Sunday, November 3.
His daughter said the disappearance is especially distressing because the Ballingarry man would “never ever” go somewhere without leaving a note or telling Bernadette.
On the day he disappeared, the retired maintenance engineer sat down to watch television after speaking on the phone with his brother in Ireland and one of his daughters in Dubai.
But he decided to go to bed early after he found himself falling asleep. That sparked the start of his evening ritual, which ended when he took out his teeth and went outside for a cigarette.
The last time his wife saw him was when he walked out the door.
When Mr Goldsboro did not return for 15 minutes she wandered outside to see if he had fallen, but could not find him in the garden or down the road.
“Taking out his teeth would always be the last thing dad did before going upstairs to get changed,” his daughter Nuala said. “But it is like he did that and suddenly put on his coat and walked away. He has not got dementia, but apparently it can come on very quickly.”
Ms Goldsboro described her father as a “pillar of society” who splits his time between volunteering for his local parish and visiting the sick in hospital.
She said the family is trying to stay pragmatic and positive. They are asking people to look inside their sheds and garages in case Mr Goldsboro sought out refuge from the bad weather there.
“We have to be positive because we just have to find him,” Ms Goldsboro said.
Mr Goldsboro is 5’9” tall, with a medium build and a bald head and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing glasses, a watch with a brown strap and a red coloured anorak.
Anyone with information relating to Mr Goldsboro’s whereabouts is asked to contact Bedfordshire Police on 101 or text information to 07786 200 011.
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