Anyway, he, one of his sisters got married and the other sister emigrated to Australia but he himself never, never married. He just stayed on in the house by himself. He stayed on in the house which had been the family house for a number of years.

Completely alone? Completely alone. Yes, and he... really cut himself off from his friends or friends of the family, because he was giving all day, every day to the growth of his business.

He kept going for a number of years but eventually of course he began to grow older and with age came arthritis (Oh, dear) and gradually the... the condition worsened and he became more and more in pain, more and more frail, but he still battled on. I think, for a number of years, (Yes), but eventually he was forced to give up.

And it left him completely alone. He was still, of course, well off. (Yes) But that wasn't in itself enough

and while he was telling me this, he was, he was so upset because he'd remembered when telling me the excitement and the thrill he'd felt (Yes) when he was completing these transactions, of what it meant to be both powerful, respected and really somebody of note in the area, whereas now he was old, frail, in pain.

He'd lost everything. Yes, he had. His neighbours were very good to him, but it wasn't that that he wanted.

And I felt so helpless because it wasn't that he needed more money, it wasn't that he really needed visitors, he didn't particularly want visitors. (No)

What he wanted was to be, to be young again and to be in a position of, of building something up and seeing the results (Yes) from it. Oh, What a sad story.