Funeral flowers placed on the grave of Charles George Hibbitt after his Burial
8TH OCTOBER
On this day in 1972, my Grandpa, Charles George Hibbitt, died aged 73, at South Hams Hospital in Kingsbridge, Devon.
I remember that day when I waved him off in Greenbank Hospital in Plymouth. Although I was only nine years old, I had a sixth sense that it was the last time I would see my Gramps. There he stood in his red dressing gown with a rope-type belt tied tightly in the middle of his emaciated frame. He was dying of lung cancer and it wasn’t too long before he succumbed to his illness.
I woke up on Sunday morning, the 8th October 1972, to find mum downstairs in the lounge. She told me that dad had set off in the car as there had been a phone call earlier to say that Grandpa didn’t have long. He had previously been moved from the hospital in Plymouth to the one in Kingsbridge, some four and a half miles from where my grandparents lived. In the time it took for my dad to get to the hospital, it was too late, he had missed him by a few minutes. I still have the goodbye note which Grandpa had left for my dad and the rest of our family. I presume Gran had one too but I don’t know for sure.
The funeral took place on the 12th in the Church at East Allington but, as was often the case with children in those days, I had no idea it was happening. I was probably at school and I wasn’t told anything about it. Grandpa was buried in his sister’s grave at Drake Memorial Park and above is a photograph of the flowers which were laid on the grave afterwards. I drive past this cemetery when I visit my parents and I still pay my respects at the grave from time to time.
Update: Grandpa’s Grave photographed in June 2025
