There was an old man who

When I answered the door this afternoon, there was an ancient white-haired man standing there.  He wanted to know if this was the Manning house.  He said that Geoffrey had called him last week wanting to arrange to have lunch together.  He (Fred) was in Canada and missed the call.  He had tried unsuccessfully to call the number left.  Finally, he came to the house.  I told him that they were in Europe. He explained that his old girlfriend had been a friend of Diane.  The girlfriend has passed away though.  Now he has a new girlfriend who is a Mormon and just sold a vacant lot in SLC.

This was a fragile old man who could not have weighed more than 90 pounds.  He has a small white beard with two handlebar mustache curls at the bottom sides. He informed me that he was 95. 

I gave him the house phone but let him know that they would not get a call for a month.  I told him that I would get in touch with the Mannings by email.  When I showed him the number in the renters' guide book, he told me to read it to him because he said he was blind and could not read the number.    He had a thick black marker and wrote down the number on a piece of paper.

Then he turned and got into his car and drove away.

I wish I had the courage to ask him if I could take his picture.

PS  I found out that Fred has a driver.  I am so relieved.