Funeral .

A very strange day. Odd and strange. When I arrived home last night  Lee was already a sleep. This is how it usually is, so I made myself a cup of tea  and helped myself to some ice cream, gave Monza dog a cuddle and went to bed. After all there will be a day tomorrow when it dawns.

Lee  woke up as I came upstairs to tell me he had a phone call. A phone call? yes, and it was that kind of phone call, that telling death. His friend Pete had passed in Wheatfields Hospice ten days ago and the funeral was this very morning at 10.30. As The phone call informing him of this came at 4.30 previous night....very short notice. Which unfortunately tells me that if we really were expected to go this call would have been ten days ago.
Pete died of a brain tumour which was diagnosed five years ago. This was the first we had heard of Pete or his family since Father's wedding over ten years ago now....... We did not go to the funeral, it was too short notice and the Fonz car was out of action at that time over in the garage having his MOT test.

Pete was Lee's friend and at the time I joined his life and moved to Leeds .Pete was his best buddy. They went out together two, three sometimes more nights a week to play snooker at the old Conservative club in Pudsey. I think at one time it was every night too....
Lee woke up last night and told me all about the phone call he received from Pete's daughter. By 3am Lee was downstairs with the telly on low.



 I asked if it was the funeral that was bothering him. He said "No". So I left it at that.


I made the final decision that we could not go.  The notice was way too short ......And Lee had not seen his friend probably for years , as when we moved to this house it was too far for Lee to catch a taxi to the snooker club anyway. The cost of the taxi was more than I was willing to pay as well as beer and smoking intake so that was that as far as going out and playing snooker.

So as usual we took Monza out in the car and stopped for a walk. We did this and speedily returned the Fonz to his parking spot and Lee took the keys to the Garage.

The car went for it's MOT at the time of Pete's funeral and passed . Yes I repeat that. The Fonz car passed it's MOT test. I have the certificate to prove it.





Lee has spent the last few days fixing him up...new wheels, adjusting the hand brake which did not hold that well, and over to the car wash......

We put the car into the garden for Lee to work on. This eliminates any arguments with neighbours about parking. This is still an issue and now it is not possible to get out the bins because of others parking habits. I know for sure there was at least one other shouting match about it. I kept out of it as I said I would....I moved our bins to the garden too so I do not have to negotiate  cars out there.

So the Fonz car is legally safe.
So what of the funeral?
 Father also used to play snooker with Pete and Lee on a Saturday night. Father never liked Pete. He was jealous and caused trouble and behaved like a spoiled child. Every week father would throw a fit over the game they were playing. Fathers rules of play differed some what from the standard. He of course was right and would offer violence to prove his point. So every Saturday he ruined the evening for everyone else in the club. Lee and Pete invited father once to make up the numbers...and ever after father claimed Saturday night as "his night out". This club was filled with old guys  who chalked their names up on the board for a turn on the table whilst drinking cheap beer. In those days it was a private club so smoking was the norm. Shots generally were played with a fag hanging out of the mouth and a pint by the elbow or window sill. How do I know this? because it was the only way I got to go out. I used to pick Lee up at Closing.
I was going to phone Father and tell him of Pete's death. Then made the choice not too. Lee is his son. Pete was their friend. Not my place at all. Lee did not call him either I noted!

When I first came back to Yorkshire I rented a house in Pudsey. Lee moved in with me. I came to Yorkshire with the expectations of a new life. I got one. I never went out with Lee in those days he was always at the snooker club. This rankled a lot, as in Cornwall even though my ex husband and I were well done with marriage  he would never have left me on my own on a Friday night and gone out without me. I still got a "friday night" in the pub or we went into Truro week ends, or some ones house or family dinner some time even the theatre....cinema......... Once in Yorkshire...I never got a friday night again. It was a bit of a culture shock...Hench why I ended up picking up Lee from the cons club. And yes I did resent the hell out of it...

Pete and his family took in Lee. He would go to their home for Sunday dinners, Christmas and birthdays. He was even a lodger at one stage in Pete's daughter's house. At this time they had a big house opposite my cousin in Tong. It was not until my wedding day that we realised this.....as everyone was setting off to a wedding that morning and then everyone arrived at the registry office to find it was the same wedding.
Pete's family moved from that house and bought a smaller house out by Bradford and daughter married and moved out to the sticks. Their old house in Tong was taken on by a doctor....I know this as we moved him in when we had the "man with a van" business.

So yes a funny old day.