It was Beryl very agitated speaking to me from Colombo, with her news that Pat was in the Fraser Home and paralysed and he wanted me to come down, see his agents Whittall’s and to come and collect the Estate keys from him and overlook the property for some months until he had fully recovered. Apparently all had gone well for the first three days. A telegram had arrived from Colombo to say that the tests on the dogs brain had proved negative, and the animal was definitely not infected, but that very same day he started to develop a sort of flu. The following day they drove north for 20 miles to the lovely coral beech at Kuchaveli, but whereas everyone went off to swim, but he sat in the landrover feeling poor. Next day the symptoms were even worse and so he stayed in bed, but in the late afternoon when he tried to go to the loo, his legs gave way. Beryl realising the seriousness, then without any more ado made up a mattress and bed in the back of the Land rover and drove through the night for 8 hours straight to the Fraser home in Colombo where he had deteriorated to such an extent during the journey, that they had to place him in an iron lung to help with his breathing. The next night she phoned me and I promised her that I would come down as soon as possible. We drove to Colombo through Yattientota to spend the night with my friend David Hart who had just taken over a 2,000 acre Low Country tea and rubber estate in an area which rejoiced in 200’’ of rain. We had a nice reunion, although jill and I were both shocked at his young wife Nicky’s appearance, with her face sallow and drawn from the effects of the all pervading steamy opressive heat. Next morning we rose early for the one hour drive to Colombo.We arrived at the home and walking across the lawn, I asked a nurse in which room Mr McKittrick was in? She turned to me amazed and said:
“ Dont you know he died last night”. We were astounded, it was unbelievable that here was a man of 43 years at the peak of his health suddenly struck down and taken away from us in the prime of life. It turned out that the Swiss rabies injection that had been given, had not been fully killed and the live virus was still free in the antibodies. When one is young and active one thinks of life as somehow stretching on forever. Accidents and illnesses can occur, but in ones young naivety one expects them to be eventually overcome and sudden death is totally unimaginable and unthinkable except for the very aged. We rushed over to commiserate with poor Beryl and I told her firmly, that from now on she could expect Jill and myself to be at her side, and to use our home as if it were hers until such time as she was ready to leave Ceylon. So Beryl and Carol and Sue came to Luckyland and prepared themselves for the biggest funeral that I had ever attended with the whole of the Nuwara Eliya Church packed, and the flowers and wreaths covering most of the Churchyard. Through his contacts in the masons, rugby and in Uva, Pat was a most respected and outstanding planter with friends all over the island from every race and from every walk of life. He was one of those rare people to whom it was a privilege to have known and Jill and I both felt it a great honour to help and assist his bereaved wife in her critical hour of need. After all the emotional energy of the funeral next morning Beryl was thoroughly washed out with the all memories and thoughts and her brain was in a state of complete shock. I felt it best that she did something hard and physical and strenuous to get her mind off the subject, and suggested at breakfast next morning that she and the girls all join us for an expedition and a picnic down by the Uma Oya below our Estates. So we set off and drove down as far as we could to about 3,000 ft elevation and then walked down the steep sides dropping another 1,500 ft first through some almost vertical paddy fields and then down through the jungle to the isolated base of the river. Here we relaxed in the heat with the beautiful red and blue butterflies half the size of ones hand, the irridescent green dragon flies and the gentle noise of the swishing leaves of the hulan-hik trees as they blew in the wind. We splashed in the river in the rock pools and then slowly started the ascent, I clambering ahead and giving a hand to pull the ladies up the steep slopes, and up over the paddy banks. We arrived back at Luckyland physically exhausted and collapsed into a hot bath with a whisky.The hard expedition had done the trick and had taken her mind off her immediate problems that first morning after the funeral, and had put that wonderful healer of ‘time’ in the way to help her forget, in the very smallest way possible. I knew that it would take some weeks to sort out her exchange control and tax problems as is always usual in Ceylon. What I was not prepared for were the battles over Pat’s “workmans compensation Insurance”. I wrote on her behalf to claim this, which was a sum that amounted to £16,300 or about £330,000 today. We got a reply that the Ocean Accident with whom the firm was insured with, had refused to pay as it was deemed that the emergency occurred whilst he was on holiday and not actual working on the Estate. As soon as I saw the letter I took it, got into the Landrover and drove 5 hours down to their offices in Colombo and went and saw their managing Director absolutely fuming with rage at the injustice and petty meanness. He could see that I was agitated and quietly said to me:
“ You know Pat was a great friend of mine as we were both masons, and when I wear our hat of friendship I want to do everything to help, but I am not in that position now, and I am instead wearing the hat of responsibility to my company and I have to look at the actual detail as it occurred, and he was on holiday when he was taken ill”.
My blood was boiling and I retorted at the utter claptrap that he was talking:
“Look I was on the Estate the very morning that he came in, from work examining building contractors work and giving instructions. The dog bit him whilst he was on duty, and he took medical advice from both the local government doctor and the planters private doctor and both recommended the course that he in fact carried out. The fact that the delayed symptoms occurred whilst he was on local leave is totally immaterial to your case, as he was following the course prescribed and ordered by his own doctor. Futhermore unless this claim is agreed to in full immediately, I can assure you that I will get the Ceylon Planters Society to institute court proceedings against your firm, and I can state with pretty good confidence that with all the attendant publicity and my personal friendship with most of the heads of the key agency houses, that you will never again be in a position to underwrite any further policies amongst the planting and estate fraternity”.
He hummed and hawed and made weak excuses and said that he would have to consult with London, but I knew that my shots had reached home in this battle of wills, and a few days later Beryl received a letter of reconsideration and they coughed up! It had been the case of a petty windbag trying to save money at a widows expense, in a totally immoral manner and I was jolly glad to see that his puffed up ego had been pricked and deflated.
When Beryl finally departed for England after a stay of three months, at least she had a bit of capital with which she was able to buy a really nice stone house with plenty of land on the edge of the moors near Scarborough and start a successful tea-rooms business that gave herself an income with which to support her two daughters. The Masons too were very supportive in helping with the girls’ education in England.
Whilst we were waiting for all these formalities to go through I took her and Carol, Sue had gone back to school in England, with the Perkins family for a weeks camping holiday at Trincomalee. We camped by the seashore and I snorkelled and dived for the most enormous crayfish that we cooked and had beautifully dressed with mayonaise. Food fit for kings, except that David Perkins would not eat any as he disliked fish and instead cooked tough steak to excercise his jaw muscles. We took out little red 10ft cartop dingy, which we sailed in the evenings and went fishing in. Once the outboard stopped with it getting entwined by a long eel which we had to cut off. The weather was calm but the little boat brought memories back of Pat sailing with Jill in the mountains above Nuwara Eliya when they got becalmed and Pat had to jump into the cold water and tow the little craft swimming ahead. On another occasion with him at our bungalow at Trinco, the wind was so violent and the sea so rough
