WILL IN RHYME

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 111, 3 February 1934, Page 18

WILL IN RHYME

Overheard Doctor’s Verdict

A will written in verse after the testator had accidentally overheard nis sentence of death spoken by a doctor has just, been admitted for probate. Tlie document, which relates to the estate of Mr. Henry Edward Hubbard, a young plasterer, of Boreham Wood. Herts, reads as follows: “The doctor has said I’m going down hill fast, I heard him as he stood in the hall, But after the first shocks of hearing were past It worried me—well —not at all! "If it’s true what be says, then I must put tlie brake on.’ But let’s hope it’s only a rumour, So the ‘grim task’ of making a will I must take on, You’ll pardon my poor sense of humour? "And now that I’ve heard of what is lo come, With the prospect of lite early ending, Any cash that I'm worth, I leave to MUM, And to her. too, the ‘bother’ of spending. "I’ve a-book about ‘Plastering’ stuck on tlie shelf (And 1 daresay the paper wouid burn), But seeing that I shall not want it myself, That may as well pass on to EKN. "There isn’t much else 1 can leave that. 1 know, Not having had much since being born. But as I write this I’ve a watch (it does go), If ho thinks 1/c would like it—for TORN. "By tlie way—put away out of sight—so they say, I've a number of books, penned by ‘Dickens,’ And if Mother would like to accept them she may, Also, all that remains of the ‘pickin’s.’

“Now most things are settled, but there's one thing still I would like carried out—to the letter, That when tlie time conies, as it certainly will, I would like carried out —to the letter;. .“So like the old woman of Nursery Rhyme, Who with nothing else left in the cupboard Endeavours to while away what’s left of ‘Time.’ I sign myself Ed. Henry Hubbard.” Mr. Hubbard left £ll4. The circumstances in which the will came to be made were explained recently by the father of the testator, Mr. Thornton Hubbard, at his home in Sbenley-road, Boreham Wood. “Ted had been ill for four years with consumption,” he said. “But two months before his death the doctor who bad been attending him left the room with bis mother and carefully closed the door. But the sound of the doctor’s voice must have filtered back from the hall'and he heard the doctor tell my wife that his case (vas hopeless. “But my son—he was a fine young fellow, 6ft. 3in. in height—never told his mother that lie had overheard that fateful conversation. Sometimes, when he was alone, and someone came unexpectedly into the room, he would be seen hastily to hide a piece of pap»r in a book. But we never guessed he was writing his will, and he never seemed to lose hope, always being outwardly cheerful, with a happy word for everyone.” After Hubbard's death the will was found by his mother among his belongings. . Mr. Hubbard added that one of the difficulties of the will was that it had no witnesses, and in prder to get it accepted they had to go to a Commissioner of Oaths and also pay two visits to Somerset House. “Torn,” to whom reference is made in the will, is Hubbard’s eldest brother, an Elstree postman.