After the move to Cheam they joined Cheam Baptist Church and remained in membership there until their respective deaths in 1990 and 2002. During the time of their membership Robert played an active part in the Church. He not only took his turn in serving during the Communion Services, but he also was asked to preach from time to time. For many years he was the Church Registrar – a job which he enjoyed with its contact with all new members of the Church.
In 1969 they moved a few roads away to Downs Side. The bungalow which they bought here was next-door-but-one from where their son and his family were living. It was here that they enjoyed Robert’s retirement. They regularly took two holidays a year. Although they visited other places, they settled into a routine of going to Malta in the Autumn and to the Canary Islands in the Spring. They said that this cut the Winter short at both ends.
In 1986 Lilian health had deteriorated to the extent that she moved into a Nursing Home. Robert visited her there practically every day. After 3 years she moved to another Nursing Home where she died on 26 September 1990. Thus ended a happy marriage that had lasted just over 57 years.
Robert continued to live in the bungalow in Downs Side where he developed his own routine. He continued to be an early riser, often being up and about well before 7am. During these years he wrote many Bible Studies which were printed as booklets and distributed to his friends. His many years of active Faith thus continued to bear fruit even as the frailty of old age came upon him.
In the Autumn of 1999 he had a couple of falls which resulted in a hip replacement operation. He was unable to return to the bungalow to live on his own and he moved into a Nursing Home in the same road. It was there that he died on 15 July 2002.
