Town worker finds man in bush overlooking new Gravenhurst pool

behind backyard fence

Diana Nicholls had to cut her grass this week

with a push lawn mower.

It may be environmentally- friendly, but the Gravenhurst retiree wasn’t thinking about that.

She was thinking about her husband Jim, who died in their First Street backyard after falling over a back hill.

The 56-year-old landscaper loved cutting grass. His wife said he once wiped away snow just to see how fast the spring grass was growing so he could cut it.

Nicholls died after his fall, when he went behind his backyard fence overlooking the new pool being built. Somehow he tumbled, and a town worker, who had just turned his grader machine off, heard the fall in the bushes on the nearby bank.

Nicholls was found on his knees and when the worker came back with help after calling 911, he was sitting.

He died on the way to the hospital.

His wife says police told her that an autopsy showed no sign of a heart attack or stroke causing the fall.

But tests are continuing.

“The fall didn’t kill him,” she said yesterday in her backyard.

The couple just retired last fall. She was superintendent of the Centennial Apartment on Winewood for 17 years,the same length of time they were married.

Jim was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y., but moved to Canada very early on and worked odd jobs.

Diana said he was getting rundown the past year doing what he loved, lawn maintenance.

She was at their Kahshe Lake trailer when neighbours called looking for him.

He is also survived by three sons in Bracebridge, Trevor, Donald and Triston.