Mrs. Trotter and Rod Poovey have died; a commentary

Well, not the legal article that you expected. I deal a lot with death, either helping folks ready the legal documents leading up to and going beyond their deaths or assisting grieved families or friends who have lost loved ones. I prepared legal documents for a couple that dated in high school and then married, but it took the husband a while to follow his wife’s wishes because he just knew he would die if he did these documents, like sooner than later. Well the truth is you will die after doing the documents but your death will probably be later than sooner and those left behind will have more to deal with without proper legal preparation and your stuff may well not go to whom you intended. I did have a client that died the day after signing their legal documents; I must admit it shook me.

So who were Mrs. Trotter and Rod Poovey? I think there is less than a handful of people in Montgomery that know their names and most of them have my same last name. I grew up in north Alabama, so they were much better known there. When certain deaths trouble me I find solace in writing about them. Mrs. Trotter was able to live into her nineties and I recall when her mother, Mrs. Jones died that she too was in her nineties. Mrs. Trotter was truly a second Mom to me. My Mom and Mrs. Trotter I think were best friends who had met either when I was an infant or maybe before. At one point they lived up the street from us, within walking distance for a kid and after we moved the day after I finished seventh grade we moved up the street from the Trotter’s, but still within walking distance. Both families went to the same church and the parents were in a bridge club. You see, their boys, Howard and Charles were best friends to my brother Lex and me. We did everything imaginable together from hiking in the woods, building a log cabin, playing baseball (Little League as participants and G I Joe baseball while we controlled our popular toys as they took turns batting and running the bases), making movies (one of which we submitted to the Kodak Teenage Movie contest), shooting model rockets, playing golf, riding bikes and so many other things. It was so common in the 60’s and 70’s that moms looked after each other’s kids like it was a normal thing. Mrs. Trotter traded out with our Mom on rides to and from school and we knew we were always to thank her for the ride. Mrs. Trotter made me try her squash casserole; I would have whined and told my Mom “please, no” but I knew I couldn’t say that to Mrs. Trotter and you know what I liked it and I enjoy yellow squash a great deal thanks to her. As I got older she might meet my dates as my friend Howard

Trotter and I dated two girls that were friends. Howard ended up marrying his beautiful girlfriend, Lynne and they have been blessed for many, many years. Peggy decided we should see other people after a short period so we both moved on. I was too dumb to completely understand the “we should see other people” thing as meaning she wasn’t very fond of me. After I got married and kids came, it was important to stop by and see the Trotters from time to time because they had that same interest in me, almost as strong as the love for their own boys and their families. There are many adult church friends that care for my wife and me and love our kids but it’s not the same as when Mr. and Mrs. Trotter were just up or down the street. Rod Poovey was not an adult in my life but rather a guy I grew up with. We went through all schools together eventually graduating high school. As pre-teens we played on the same little league baseball team for two years. Rod was our number one pitcher. As a team we were not that talented and I don’t know that we won many games but we had fun. You see we were an “expansion team” up on the mountain in Gadsden. Most of us came from the Noccalula Civitans farm team and were some of the older boys on the team. The Fraternal Order of the Police (FOP) was kind enough to support the team. Back then we had real uniforms and FOP also supplied the bats and baseballs; our parents had less financial responsibility for sports in those days. Rod’s dad would often pitch batting practice and I always loved it because for some reason I could hit off of him better than the others. I understood many years later that Mr. Poovey died in some industrial type accident but by then Rod and I had long gone our separate ways. The last time I saw Rod was at a high school reunion fifteen years ago. It was good to see him and we talked for awhile. I understood he was working in some pastoral capacity following several years in sales. He invited me to sit with him but I politely declined since I had already met another friend there that I was going to sit with. We never did connect again after that and he was not at our last reunion. It is one of those moments that I regret not really having that longer talk that old friends have. I don’t know what caused his death; he was a pastor to the senior adults at his church in Tuscaloosa. Our high school class has probably lost close to 15% of our classmates. I expected us to grow up, get married and have children but we seem too young to be dying off. I’ll see Rod again one day in heaven. That conversation we might have had will no longer be important since earthly concerns will be no more. It will be good to see him.

This article is informative only and not meant to be all inclusive. Additionally this article does not serve as legal advice to the reader and does not constitute an attorney- client relationship. The reader should seek counsel from their attorney should any questions exist.

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