Midland Ontario - James (Jim) Clark was not expecting to die when he did.
 
The 86-year-old Midland man had tickets to a fish fry and a Probus Club event.
 
He was planning to go dancing to Big Band and country music on the weekend, like he always did, at the Midland and Penetanguishene legions.
 
Right until the end of his life, Jim was active in the community.
 
"If I didn't phone him by 09:30 in the morning, he'd be gone for the day," said his son, also named Jim Clark.
 
He was a volunteer in the Georgian Bay General Hospital coffee shop and could usually be found helping friends.
 
A string of women on his street would regularly ask him to clear their snowy driveways.
 
"He was putting on weight because all these ladies were giving him muffins (for helping)," his son said.
 
"He was very generous with his time."
 
What Jim was most known for, however, was his love of the railroad.
 
His licence plate even read "CP Rail" for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
 
"The president of the CPR didn't have it. A guy knocking around Midland in a white Chevy truck had it," his son said.
 
Born and raised in Midland, Jim grew up in a Scotch Presbyterian community around the railway and shipyards.
 
Jim's father had moved from Scotland to Midland around 1919 and worked as a dye maker at the shipyards.
 
Jim joined his dad as a young man, travelling around the Great Lakes until he got married on 15 May 1954.
 
He lost his job that same day, but his marriage lasted until his wife Edythe's (Edie) death of cancer eight years ago.
 
Jim worked for the CPR in the 1950s and again in the 1970s, conducting freight trains filled with grain across Ontario.
 
Jim was the last conductor to ever run a train over the Hogg's Bay trestle bridge in the 1970s.
 
It was then one of the longest wooden structures in North America.
 
The tracks are long gone, but Jim remained an encyclopedia of knowledge.
 
"He knew all the stories going back to the SS Keewatin," said his son.
 
"He was very good with recalling all this history."
 
Jim had two sons, Jim and Dave, and was a father who led by actions more than words.
 
He was a talented, untrained carpenter, and stonemason, and he loved dressing up in costumes for parties.
 
Last Valentine's Day, he showed up in a barrel with strings over his shoulders.
 
"I think he was dressed as a guy who wore a barrel instead of pants," said his son, laughing.
 
"He was a happy presence."
 
Clark died peacefully in his sleep on 14 Apr 2014.
 
Jenni Dunning.