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I still hadn't heard from Dennis and neither had Len. I was sure he had gone back to drugs. I was suddenly woken up by the phone ringing it was around midnight. It was Lesley, they had just had two policemen at their door saying Dennis had died I couldn't believe it I was so shocked. Evidently the only address they could find was Lesley's. They said he had died of a suspected heart attack and someone would need to go and give a formal identification , as it was a sudden death there would also have to be a post mortem.
Jim said he had the day off the next day and offered to go and identify Dennis for me. as a Transport Cop he would be able to travel free. I was so grateful as I didn't think I could do it myself. I rang Steve and told him he couldn't believe it either, we were all in shock.
He said he would come over the next day as we had a lot to sort out ie.... funeral arrangements. One thing I knew he had to be buried not cremated, it was one thing he had talked about. He had very strong beliefs. I would also have to tell Linda , Dennis's ex wife as Craig his son would want to know, although they didn't have any contact he was still his Dad.
Jim went to Exeter the nxt day(Saturday) and Steve came over. we speculated on what had actually happened to Dennis, hopefully Jim would be able to find out. I rang Linda and she said she would tell Craig and ring me back.
She rang a few hours later and said Craig was really upset and wanted to know if he could come with Steve and I to the funeral , of course I said yes. Linda then said she and Craig wanted to arrange the funeral as because they were on benefits they would get it paid for by the D.H.S.S and Craig really wanted to do this for his Dad.
Linda sorted it all and I booked a bed and breakfast for Steve,Craig and myself for the night before the funeral and I also informed Len and Jean as I knew they wanted to be there. We were travelling down by train, it was a long boring journey. We then got a taxi to the hotel and went out looking for somewhere to eat.
The morning came we had a really nice breakfast and got ready for the funeral. We had no idea where it was so we booked a taxi and it turned out to be about five minutes drive away. I was really surprised there were quite a few people there.
This was the first time I had been to a buriel and I didn't like it, to see the coffin lowered into that hole made me shudder. A man came up to me and said he was Len and introduced us to his wife Jean and promptly invited us to go home with them for a cup of tea and to see where Dennis had lived up until two weeks ago. We were met by three dogs one a little black dog had been Dennis's and was missing him.
I introduced Craig to them and they were shocked as Dennis had never mentioned having a son. I could see by the look on Craig's face he was upset and rightly so but it was the way things were. When he was a baby Dennis wasn't allowed any contact with Craig. Linda and her family made sure of that. To a degree I could understand it as he was really bad with the drugs, he was then a registered heroin addict. Dennis and Linda agreed that it was better for Craig if Dennis stayed out of his life and when he was old enough he could decide if he wanted to see him.