Freddy

My second cousin passed away at four this morning.

The post mortem is yet to clarify what the cause was but he had been suffering from a cold the past few days so it's possible it could have been from that.

He was in his early seventies and it really shouldn't be a shock when someone at that age passes.

But it is.

At my Aunt Olwen's funeral in 1999 I was sitting in my unvle's car and he noted to me how he thought Fred was 'wearing well' when he walked in our view after the cremation. It seems kind of weird that eight years later both of them are no longer alive.

On the subject of 'wearing well' during my thoughts about him this afternoon I recalled a moment two years ago that was a bot of an eye opener to me.

I had been dealing with the stresses that are mentioned a bit in these pages and it took a toll on my body. I was drinking and eating more than I should and my weight was ballooning.

I bumped into him when I was walking home from work and said 'hello' to him and he looked at me as if he hadn't met me before. I realised there how much I was not looking like my usual self and a few weeks later I went on my major diet kick that lost me the three stone that I had put on in those peculiar times.

That one moment made a difference but I didn't notice until this retrospective view..