Sam attended his son-in-law's funeral with the rest of the family on 16 October 1972. In 1973, he asked to be confirmed by the church after suffering a bout of ill health, thinking he was going to die soon. However, this was just a scare and he soon got better and was involved in a fracas with old wartime friend, Charlie Nelson, in late 1973.
In 1975, he was annoyed to find that Annie had been in contact with his niece, Jean Kendall, in Middlesbrough. Sam had disowned the family after his sister Rosemary was ill-treated by her husband Arthur Kendall. In March, Jean's 16-year-old daughter, Rosemary Kendall, turned up and Sam agreed to let her stay. The same year, he was disappointed to find he would not become the new churchwarden after Wally Lumm died.
In 1983, Sam Pearson was grumbling because grandson Joe was seeing a married woman, Barbara Peters. In November 1984, Sam won first prize at the Village Annual Pumpkin Show. He died peacefully in his sleep that night and daughter Annie found him dead in his bed when she took him his morning cup of tea. His funeral took place a few days later. Annie found that Sam had told Reverend Donald Hinton (Hugh Manning) that he had not much time left and not to tell Annie until after he had died.
