Uncle Albert

I met an interesting man today. He was in hospital with what sounded like something terminal. He said he was going ATB which is Naval slang I understand. He joined the Navy in 1943 as a 17 year old and spent 2 years on the Russian convoy route. He was involved in the sinking of the Scharnhorst. He could remember the exact times of events. He also told me how he saw helpless German sailors on the deck running and silhouetted by the fires on the superstructure and that the fifty 16 year old new recruits all perished on that ship and only 17 of the crew survived (Wikipedia says 36 but I can forgive him his inaccuracies).
Whilst we were chatting a medical person appeared - she was some kind of carer liaison operative. She couldn't help but do that EMPHASI-I-I-ISED SHO-O-O-UTY TAAALK that old people seem to illicit from some people - not very professional and a bit patronising in my view. He was brighter than her for sure. When she had left we just carried on talking like you would in any normal conversation. I wanted to talk some more but my sore throat was giving me jip.
When I left I shook his hand - it felt brittle I could feel this arthritic joints grinding - and said Nice to meet you Albert. He started laughing. That ain't my name! The nurse calls me that because I remind her of Uncle Albert on Del Boy!
And he did look a bit like him.