A life in retrospect

My Grand uncle, died sometime last year,

My dad, got a claim for his share of the estate. I was looking at it, today. If Dad signs, which he may not. I don’t think Dad would pursue a greater claim against my late uncle’s estate. I think he gets the sense, its pulling the boots of a corpse.

My grand uncle died childless, and alone. He had battled with drink for most of his life. In his youth, he had been apprenticed as a tailor. The change of fashions, mass production had not been kind.

I remember him, buying us lucozade, after a football game. When it still came in glass bottles. This was in the 1980’s

Going through, the lawyers report of his property told of an austere, life. The rights to  graze on several pieces of common land. These pieces of land were not connected Some sheep pastures. One fenced off, one not

A small bungalow, without double glazing or even central heating, but valued at eighty thousand. I wonder what he could have done, with that. It would have brought some comfort, but comfort amongst strangers.

So much and yet so little, a life that the world passed over. This is the truth and falseness of the written word. The lawyers valuation is the sterile summation of a life. It was a life, and not without its triumphs