Cause of Death

I was told that my grandfather had been sick. A heavy snowstorm was moving through the area. After coming home from work, likely already exhausted, Grandma pressed him to shovel the front porch and sidewalk. When he finished, worn out, she told him to go out and pick up groceries or medicine.

As he reached the median while crossing Joppa Road, a friend of his, a police officer, saw him collapse. He had suffered a heart attack. There was nothing that could be done.

Moms Version

Decades later, while reading my mother’s memoirs (pp. 219–224), I came across a more detailed and more troubling version of the story.

According to her account, Grandpa had been working for 36 hours straight, keeping snowplows running during the storm. He called ahead to say he’d be home in an hour and asked that dinner be ready so he could eat and get some rest.

When he arrived, dinner wasn’t ready. Grandma told him to shovel the sidewalk. He did, likely to avoid an argument. Later, just as dinner was nearly finished, she said they were out of milk and told him to go to High’s to pick some up.

He walked up the road, crossed all four lanes—and collapsed.

Police officers who knew him were already in the parking lot. As Dr. Harris entered the store, an officer called out, “Hey Doc, Tiny just fell down!” and they rushed to him.

My grandmother called my mother with the news, but without emotion. My mother tried to reach my father at work but couldn’t get through. When she called the police for help, they refused, and even warned her about liability if she drove with the children and got into an accident. Eventually, the police went into my father’s workplace and had him call home. He went to pick up Grandma and take her to the hospital.

My mother couldn’t sleep that night. She was shaken not only by the loss, but by how casually it had been delivered. In her telling, she blamed Grandma.

She also described Grandma as emotionally distant—never crying, even at the viewing—and controlling in other ways, including refusing to allow my Aunt Winnie to attend. When Great Aunt Pauline contacted her anyway, Grandma later discovered it and became furious.

Visiting Afterwards

My dad later told me that when he visited the house, one detail stood out: the sidewalk had been perfectly shoveled.

I remember being there around that time. I think Grandmom said something that avoided directly telling us Grandpa had died, which upset my mother.

Grandma was eccentric and often unpredictable. I vaguely recall an argument where she wanted to make small cuts on Grandpa’s cheeks with a knife. I may be misremembering. It could have been something explained differently to a child, but it has always stood out as strange. I’ve never encountered anything like it since.

Funeral

I attended the funeral at Evans Funeral Chapel on Wednesday, January 8, 1980. I remember the room’s brightness. Gold designs on white wallpaper, blue carpet, and Grandpa’s casket at the front, and a center aisle leading up to it.

I was in the back, playing with Lego and Duplo blocks. Another kid showed me how to use Lego roof pieces to build a race car on top of a Duplo base. It was fascinating—two different systems combined into something new.

At one point, my dad lifted me up to the casket. There were brass bars between us. I looked down and saw Grandpa’s face.

I didn’t feel anything.

I don’t clearly remember his face now. I only remember an impression that feels reconstructed over time. I understood, in the way I had been taught, that there was nothing after death. He simply no longer existed.

I went back to playing.

Internment

He was interred at Parkwood Cemetery in Baltimore. I remember my mom once driving there, getting out to visit his grave, and returning to the car. I’ve never been back myself.

Things Remembered

Family stories say he built a cinder block garage where the family lived while their house was being constructed. I didn’t learn much more about him until years later, when I received his death certificate among my mother’s belongings. That’s when I learned he was a veteran and worked on heavy machinery.

No Matching Reports

Newspapers from that time reported only five deaths related to the storm: two from exposure, two from traffic accidents, and one from a shooting.

One detail stood out: An unidentified man in his 60s was found on Gay Street and Patterson Park Avenue, dead from exposure.

It may be a red herring. There was no mention of a police officer witnessing a collapse. No clear match to the story I had always heard.

So I began to wonder, “Was that unidentified man my grandfather?”

Looking at the location today, it’s now near North Gay Street and North Patterson Park Avenue, where Greater St. John Full Gospel Church stands. The area has changed significantly. Many buildings have been replaced by empty lots or parking. It’s difficult to tell what once stood there.

It’s also several miles from where he lived.

Uncertainty

suspect the story I was told may not be entirely accurate. It’s possible my grandmother told my mother a version shaped by her own perspective, or that details changed over time.

My father’s memory of the freshly shoveled sidewalk suggests that part of the story is true. But beyond that, the pieces don’t fully align.

Perhaps his death never made the news. Or perhaps it was reported differently.

If I can locate his official death certificate, it may help connect or rule out some of these dots.

Final Reflection

There’s one more thing I’ve heard about my grandfather: when tensions rose, he would leave the house to cool off rather than argue.

That small habit stayed with me. As a child, it became a quiet lesson: sometimes the best way to handle frustration is simply to walk away.

Snow to stop

Page 18
Saturday, January 5, 1980
The Baltimore Sun
Baltimore, Maryland
Newspapers.com

Snowball argument leads to slaying of county teen-ager

The Baltimore Sun
Page 1
Sunday, January 5, 1980
Baltimore, Maryland
Newspapers.com

Clearing sky is forecast after snow

The Baltimore Sun
Page 3
Sunday, January 6, 1980
Baltimore, Maryland
Newspapers.com

Royston

Death Notices
The Baltimore Sun
Page 30: Monday, January 7, 1980
Page 32: Tuesday, January 8, 1980
The Evening Sun
Page 28: Tuesday, January 8, 1980
Baltimore, Maryland
Newspapers.com

Exposure, traffic accidents,
shooting kill 5 in first snow

The Evening Sun
Page 28
Monday, January 7, 1980
Baltimore, Maryland
Newspapers.com