The Mumfords had been friends of the Beards but lost contact long ago.
Al, a carpenter, said he met English-born Ron, a painter, on a building site in Bewbush, Crawley, England, in 1979.
“Ron had a very long face; he was miserable he was not long back from New Zealand and wanted to return there.”
Al had spent time in New Zealand also where he had met and married Jenny.
With their connection to New Zealand the two men and their wives struck up a friendship.
For a year they socialised together.
“We used to live in a 300-year-old house owned by Al’s brother,” Jenny said. “They would come around for dinner.”