No Last Of The Summer Wine

 

I posted this photo of our friend and neighbour David Howard and his wife Val on this blog  just under two years ago when they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary with a great reception at Framlingham Bowling Club where David was an enthusiastic member.

I'm posting it again now in much sadder circumstances after David failed to pull through following open heart surgery in Basildon that was delayed for months due to the Covid-19 crisis. He came to see me on the eve of his trip to hospital and we joked about how the low mortality rate made the operation a risk worth taking. That was over two months ago. Two long lonely months in ICU with no visitors. 

We had a couple of hopeful reports of improvements  but these were soon dashed by setbacks and last week David finally lost his fight for survival. We were devastated. 

We only knew David for six or seven years after he and Val moved to Framlingham to be closer to their son Mark but in those years we became good friends and David and Val were regular pub quiz companions like us, propped up by our quiz wizard neighbour Derek in our team "Derek and the Dumbinoes". We had so many laughs but not so many wins.

David wasn't looking for sympathy when he came to see me the night before his fateful hospital trip. No he was coming to check how we both were and asking us to make sure that Val was okay while he was away - he was that sort of man. I often joked with him that we were going to be like Foggy and Clegg from "Last Of The Summer Wine". There aren't many hills to go down in bathtubs around here but we said that maybe one year we'd build a Go-Kart and enter the town's race down the hill. With his excellent DIY skills that might even have been feasible - but it's not to be.

David spent a lot of time in France when he was younger and built up a collection of fine wines that he never got around to drinking. Unlike me, he wasn't a drinking man and he would often arrive on the doorstep and hand me a sample from his cellar (the garage) with a "I don't know if this will still be okay but I thought you might like to try it." I would brush away the thick layers of dust and, next time we were dining, would give it a try. "Be honest" he'd always say. So I was. I told him when the wines were superb and I told him when they went straight down the sink. You can't always tell people the truth but you could with David.

Since arriving in Framlingham, David would often be seen standing on his driveway holding court with anyone who passed by. He always had a wave and a kind word for everyone and was planning a grand garden party to celebrate the end of lockdown whenever that might be, to follow up his earlier open garden party a few years ago. 

He spent much of lockdown researching a new flat screen TV - joking that it had to be a better one than ours. It was finally delivered and installed shortly before he went to hospital and will now be just a sad memorial for Val

A keen fisherman and musician he is survived by Val and son Mark. He will be sorely missed.