Page 185 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

FRED DIED YESTERDAY
It was during this time, when we had been installed at Northcote for some couple of
months, that Ruth and I received a call from my old mentor Fred Popham.

You will have seen how he has popped up in our lives from time to time even after he had
retired from Firestone.
Ruth and I had made a point of calling to see Fred every few months ever since the time
he had retired.
He lived in a tiny cottage not far beyond Grantham. The cottage, he always told us was
“within his means” and made no great demands on his meagre pension.

This particular day was unusual as he seldom telephoned.

Also most unusual was that he particularly asked us to take Dinan the Dalmatian with us
and call to see him the very next day without fail.

We duly paid the visit, Fred and his wife Gladys seemed quite normal, but the very next
morning we had a phone call from Fred’s son Ian, who lived in the same village.
“I don’t know how I am going to tell you this,” he said. “Dad, ( meaning Fred) died during
the night”.
Quite obviously he knew something was going to happen, and we felt deeply honoured to
have been asked to be the last people to talk to him before he died.
At Fred’s funeral at Grantham Crematorium a few days later, there was just Fred’s son
Ian, Ruth and myself and Geoff, Fred’s life long friend in the tyre trade, from Lincoln.
.........................and Reggie the Jack Russel. Also in the picture above.

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