WITH All THE UNCERTAINTY OF TODAY'S world, there are two things the people of Seabrook, N.H. (pop. 8,100), can count on: The sun will rise each day on the twin domes of their town's nuclear power plant, and when the sun sets on their lives, Billy Felch, if he is still around, will be at their funerals.

Billy, 55, is Seabrook's perpetual mourner. He went to his first funeral in 1954, when he played "The Old Rugged Cross" on the organ at the service of an elderly neighbor he'd befriended, and he has been to about three a week ever since. Besides offering his condolences to the bereaved, Billy—who buys the Newburyport Daily News each day at 2:30 P.M. and turns right to the obituaries—will bang out a hymn on the organ, lead a prayer (the 23rd Psalm is his favorite), direct traffic at the cemetery and even take up a collection for the widow. "I do it because people need me," says Billy, who makes his rounds on his motorcyle, irrespective of the weather.

"I tell Billy he's got to wait for the family to go in first," says Jack Gendron of the Remick Funeral Home in nearby Hampton. "Billy feels linked to all these people. It wouldn't be a funeral around here without him."

In other towns, Billy might give folks the creeps. But the Felch family is well known in Seabrook. Billy's dad, Myron, who died in 1963, was the fire chief; his uncle Charles is a state representative. People also know that Billy was born with epilepsy and learning disabilities. "The doctor said I'd only live to 20," says Billy, who fixes bikes and lawn mowers at the small wood-framed house he shares with Lulu Spear, his girlfriend of 22 years. "Well, here I am now at 55. Helping others, that's what got me through."

As for those few who object to Billy's rumpled dress (mostly T-shirts and jeans) and off-color jokes (post-ceremony), family friend David Burditt says, "You've got to see the simple act Billy is trying to perform [at funerals]. He gets you talking and makes you feel comfortable. See, people get called to do things on this earth, and some don't answer the call. Well, Billy Felch did."