Suzie Fletcher from The Repair Shop shared a poignant moment when she realised her husband Rob had surrendered to his battle with cancer.
Rob, gravely ill and having lost a significant amount of weight, was on a motorcycling trip with Suzie when he struggled to get his motorcycle onto a bike rack. Before Suzie could assist him, some fellow bikers stepped in to help.
Despite trying to conceal his frailty with multiple t-shirts, Rob accepted the strangers’ help and admitted, “Look, man, I got cancer.”
In her heartfelt memoir, ‘The Sun Over The Mountains’, Suzie reflected, “I saw the humiliation in his face,” but also noted an acceptance.
She said: “From that moment, I started to see a different look on his face. I’ve seen the same thing in other people who are terminally ill. You see it in their eyes and you can trace it along their brow. It registered with me that this was a new beginning for Rob. An acceptance,” reports Birmingham Live.
Suzie recognised a pivotal change, writing: “Until then he’d been fighting hard, but now he had crossed over that indiscernible line that divides living and letting go.”
Originally from Oxford, Suzie had relocated to the US to pursue her career as a master saddler in Illinois. Her initial two-year plan extended to 22 years after meeting Rob in Colorado just three weeks into her American adventure.
She fondly remembered their engagement, saying: “Some memories are more lucid than others, the one of me bending down on my knee to propose to Rob on the sidewalk in [South Dakota tourism hotspot] Custer is crystal clear.
“By the time he put the ring on me, he was in tears. We were happy but there was sad, unsaid recognition on both sides.”
Suzie then explained Rob’s condition at that time: “He couldn’t verbalise it but it was clear he’d given up the fight and was surrendering to the love we shared in whatever time we had left together.”
Following her husband’s passing, Suzie, with her brother Steve’s encouragement, joined The Repair Shop team, where she found solace and support during difficult periods.
She expressed her gratitude by stating: “Being part of The Repair Shop has healed me from the inside. Using my skills in such a positive way has brought me joy and confidence. If I’ve ever been worried or run into a problem, their very first words have been ‘What can we do to help? What do you need? ‘ This changes the dynamics of everything.”
Be sure to catch The Repair Shop next on BBC One tomorrow (Tuesday, December 24) at 8.15pm.