The Final Years

October 1977-June 1982

Daphne arranged for Hugh to share an apartment in New York with his friend Martha Williams and in October 1977, he returned to New York. He seems to have been relatively abstemious on his return, but given his history any alcohol was likely to be harmful and by 1979, he was once again having trouble with his legs.

In June of 1979, he was asked to exhibit at the local community centre and did so again in 1980.

Hugh also began to have other health issues, and by 1981 he was suffering from memory loss as well as cataracts, which made reading, his main pastime, very difficult. Daphne thought this led to a return to heavy drinking, and he was hospitalized with pneumonia, from which he died on June 12, 1982.

Photos of Hugh
Hugh
Hugh

The picture was probably taken at one of the exhibitions he had at the seniors’ centre near where he was living in Queens 1979 or 1980