About three weeks later whilst they were sitting having breakfast the phone rang and it was Charlie: “ I think the old girl is on her way today. I say Fred , would you care to come over to our factory and taste teas at 11 o’clock and I’ll let you know what is happening.” Father returned for lunch and when asked about the old lady, said that not a word was uttered by either brother during the two hours he had spent with them, and he did not want to raise the matter in case it upset them.
That evening though it was Hubert on the phone: “ The old girl has gone at last. I say Fred I wonder if you could do us a favour. To save time and expense we would like to borrow your open Studebaker car and we could put the coffin in the back, and we will have the funeral tomorrow in Nuwara Eliya to get it over with.” So next morning Mother and Father went over to Allagolla, as agreed. She refused to attend the funeral knowing well what a drunken orgy it would become. Already before they had set off the brothers were both very well oiled. The coffin was loaded into the back of the Studebaker with Hubert in the back steadying it whilst Father drove with Charlie in the front. Not long after leaving, with the brothers singing their hearts out , he came round a corner above Kirklees Estate, and almost collided with another car, having to swerve and brake suddenly. The coffin slipped off and was only just retrieved by Charlie jumping from the front and putting his weight on before it slid off and then it would have been down a 500 ft drop.
Meanwhile at the bungalow Mother with their servants had the place tidied up. In her bedroom in the cupboard were bottles and bottles of empty gin, which she had secreted away and had drunk without anyones knowledge. The beds were made and after lunch, she relaxed after all the work when at about 4 o’clock the phone rang. It was Hubert: “We have had the most bloody marvellous funeral they have ever seen in Ceylon. I don’t know how, because it was all so quick, but there was a hell of a crowd there, one had just told another I suppose. Everyone is plastered, and the good news is that Charlie has announced his engagment to Lilian. Ask the boys to have beds made for 10, and we will be celebrating well into the night”.
After Hubert had rung off, Mother had to get with the servants beds and sleeping places made for 10. Even the old girls sheets which had been put out for the dhoby, were shaken and replaced on the bed. As soon as this was done she returned before dark to the quiet peace of Luckyland in order to be well away from the drunken melee.
The results of that party in the long term , were to dominate my life in ways that could at that time never be imagined by any of the parties concerned.
