Another ham of good old days gone away

A few days ago, I received an e mail from Vic W9RGB, which told of K5FA Fred's passing. He seemed to have had dementia which caused a fatal complication. I have not heard him for over 10 years. That was the reason.

I have talked Fred quite often from 2000 through 2010. Vic used to say Fred was a typical southerner with good sense of humor. In addition, he loved old fashioned CW chat. While that period, having lasted not so long, we have met on 7026KHz plus or minus. Around 12Z, that was the dawn in Mississippi and evening hours after supper here. There was a good path from here to Mid Southern US around that time. 

He told me he had been a bachelor and took over the family business of furniture store. He seemed to have a big property. He has planted a lot of vegetables there and also never forgot putting up old fashioned wire antennas. Once he told me he had set a couple of V beams for VK/ZL and Europe. I can't recall what radios he has used but they should not be modern sets. 

He seemed to have close bonding with his family members. His two brothers were also ham. And one of them was a physician. Whenever he has had reunion with them, he always pleasantly told about that to me. He had an old aunt named Nora those days. She was sent into a nursing facility when her daughter thought it was not possible for her to live alone at her home. Nora was not very happy at the facility and would like to return to her home. Fred has worked hard to make it possible for her to live by herself again. Her daughter accepted Fred's proposal that he and some helpers would visit Nora at her home at regular interval. Nora could come back to sweet home again. I still remember how excited he was at that project. Fred was happily reporting that to me as if it were his own event. 

Fred was not, so far as I know, an avid DXer. I have never heard any episode he stayed up for a night or two for the hectic events in ham radio. He was an old fashioned ragchewer. That was why I had enjoyed talking to him so often. There used to be a group of CW operators hanging out on that frequency around the same time. Evidently, Don WB6BEE who had waked up after a long hibernation from ham radio activities was the key person in the group. Fred must be one of the gang or even the earliest operator who has activated that loosely united group. Later, Don has moved to the East Coast. The group had expired spontaneously so far as I realized in the last couple of years before I quit radio. Or, hopefully, there could still be some hams hanging out there.

However, the news of Fred's passing sure convinced me of a time being over for now. It was a good old days.