October 2011
Dave opened the front door hauling the largest suitcase over the threshold glad to be home after an only alright package holiday to Benidorm. 'Why is it you go away for two weeks and accumulate more post than you get in a year?' His wife Sue put her case down and picked up the letters giving them a cursory once over. 'I can't be bothered with these now Dave, let's have a cup of tea.' The letters, put aside, were forgotten as the couple settled back into the routine drabness of their life: Dave going off to the garage where he was part mechanic/part second hand car salesman; Sue to her job as a cleaner in the Town Hall. Days passed and then just as Sue had got back from work one morning the phone rang. The caller asked if that was the home of David Fowler and when Sue confirmed it was, the caller said, 'Please hold, I have Mr. Emanuel of Emanuel, Dobbs and Carter on the line.'
'Who the hell are they?' thought Sue, and then the very posh voice of Mr. Emanuel came on the phone, 'Mrs. Fowler, it's really your husband we need to speak to and we wonder if he received our letter, only we could have some vital information for him. It would please us greatly if he could contact this office, say at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. Thank you we will await his call.'
'What letter was he talking about – oh my God, the letters that came while we were away, what did I do with them?' Sue rushed into the hall – no letters there; she went into the dining room and there they were tucked behind the clock on the mantelpiece. She hastily scanned them – mostly bills and junk mail but there was one that was addressed to Dave marked personal. She opened it with great care and withdrew the expensive headed paper. The next minute she flew to the phone and called Dave telling him to come home ASAP.
Dave read the letter three times and could not glean any information that could help him determine what it meant. All it said was for him to phone the offices of Emanuel, Dobbs and Carter whereby he could receive news that may be to his advantage. After a restless night he phoned the garage to say he would be late in due to a domestic problem and at 10am sharp he phoned and asked for Mr. Emanuel. Mr. Emanuel requested that Dave attend the offices the following day and would he please bring his birth certificate and any other documents that would be proof of his identity.
So Dave and Sue boarded the train for London changing onto the underground for Holborn. They found the offices and pushed open the glass doors. 'This is posh, Dave, the carpet's thicker than our mattress.' observed Sue. They were shown into the office of Mr. Emanuel, who turned out to be slight in stature but exquisitely dressed. When they were seated with cups of proper coffee before them, Mr. Emanuel asked to see the birth certificate.
'Mr. Fowler, when was the last time you had contact with your grandfather Nathaniel Crudgington?'
'Well I never knew him I'm sorry to say, you see my father never got on with him and refused to go into the family business, then when he married my mother they moved away, then I was born and that's when my father started to drink and gamble. My mother divorced him when I was about five and got remarried to John Fowler who adopted me as his son. I have never seen or heard from my real father since.'
'Well that is the reason you are here and why it has taken so long to trace you,' said Mr. Emanuel, 'you see your Grandfather had a very successful business known as Nats Joinery and Bespoke Carpentry and I should imagine that 50% of people in the South of England have had one of his kitchens installed in their homes. In his will you have been named as the main beneficiary to his quite vast fortune. Your real father was removed from Nathaniel's will the day you were born and it had never been changed. I'm pleased to tell you that you are the recipient of one million pounds in cash and bonds plus any monies in other accounts your grandfather had.'
How Dave and Sue got home they don't remember but they did stop at the local off licence to buy a bottle of their best champagne which Dave opened with trembling fingers, spilling most of it whilst giggling and deciding how they would spend the windfall, raising their glasses to the grandfather Dave never knew.
This is a true story; only the names have been changed to protect their real identity. Needless to say the fortune was spent on cars, boats, houses, holidays to exotic places and more cars and houses and holidays . . . and why not!