Residents of the north-east’s biggest town are expected to line the streets to bid farewell to a popular local businessman following his death at the age of 46.
Mechanic Charles Duncan – known to his friends and family as Jock – suffered a heart attack during a traditional north-east wedding ritual, just two years after he survived a triple bypass operation.
The Peterhead Motors boss and his friends were preparing to “blacken” a bridegroom-to-be in tar and feathers and parade him through the village of St Fergus when he collapsed.
Despite the best efforts of three trained first-aiders on the scene, Mr Duncan never regained consciousness and died in hospital, surrounded by his family.
Since his death hundreds of people have sent cards and flowers to his Peterhead home, left messages at the garage and posting tributes on social media.
Last night Mr Duncan’s partner of 15 years, Carol Lacey, said she was stunned by the outpouring of grief and emotion from the town.
She said: “Everyone wants to do him so proud now, because he did everything for everybody. You don’t realise until something like this what a community we are.”
Ms Lacey described her partner as a man who poured his heart and soul into the business he co-owned.
It was at the garage in the town’s South Street that the pair first met.
“He was my boss – and he was the love of my life,” she said.
“Not a lot of people have the opportunity to say that.”
The couple never married, although Ms Lacey said she was proud to describe herself as Jock’s fiance.
“We always said we’d get married one day,” she said.
“Charles just never said which day.”
Mr Duncan had major heart surgery two years ago and – despite the best efforts of Ms Lacey and her daughter Megan – he was back in his work overalls within six weeks.
She said: “He was unbelievable joker. But nothing was a bother to him. He’d say ‘nae hassles’ and do whatever you needed. He was such a good, good man.
“It’s hard to know how many lives he touched, but I think we’ll find that out on Wednesday.”
Ms Lacey has invited members of Peterhead Motors staff past and present, as well as her partner’s friends and anyone whose lives he touched to join the tributes as he makes his way to his final resting place.
The funeral cortege will leave the family home and pause at the South Road business he loved shortly after 11am for a moment of applause.
Megan Lacey echoed her mother’s thoughts. She said: “People have left an unbelievable amount of messages, and it may sound bad but we’ve had to actually hold back on the flowers because we’ve received so many.”
She said she would always remember the last time she saw the man she regarded as her stepfather.
“I dropped him off before the blackening,” she said.
“He’d taken his boiler suit, and he had a crate of beer. He was smiling and so excited. But he never even got to put his boiler suit on.”
Mr Duncan’s family also stressed their gratitude to Nichola Buchan, Moira Davidson and Jamie Henderson – the three trained first-aiders who kept the mechanic alive for long enough for them to say goodbye – as well as the medical staff who cared for him in his final moments.
He was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where he spent four days in the intensive care unit.
Mr Duncan is also survived by his mother Mary and brothers David and Iain.
Donations, in lieu of funeral flowers, will be taken for the British Heart Foundation.