The decision to join the crew of the BBC’s Repair Shop was, for the show’s resident leather expert Suzie Fletcher, born out of personal tragedy. Suzie, who is originally from Oxford, had moved to the US to work as a master saddler in Illinois.
She had planned to stay in the US for two years, but just three weeks after arriving in the country, she met the man who was to become her husband. That led to a 22-year stay – with some dramatic highs and lows.
Suzie ended up living what she described as “a western life, a ranching life” with Rob in Colorado. She has told in the past how he displayed some unhealthily controlling behaviour. He forbade her from wearing shorts and other revealing clothing, she said, and sometimes banned her from leaving the house.
More disturbingly, at one point he had threatened to kill her. Suzie recalled: “I just said hello, and he uttered those words – ‘I’ve worked out how to have you killed. And I will get away with it.’ It just stopped me in my tracks.”
Suzie’s husband Rob died of pancreatic cancer in 2013, at the age of age of just 51: “We went through good times and bad,” Suzie told The Times. “He was sometimes abusive towards me, but he had demons of his own. I was nonetheless devastated when he lost his life so young. In due course I decided to return home.”
That meant, after more than two decades away, Suzie returned to her home region of the Cotswolds.
The Repair Shop has its fair share of emotional moments -Credit:BBC
Suzie told Lorraine Kelly in a 2023 interview that she thought Rob’s “bad treatment” of her came steeped from “his insecurities and his inability to cope with life.”
She added: “We were good together, weirdly, but we had this element which was not healthy and I’m really interested in looking into why this occurs and try to find a solution.”
Rob’s cancer was already quite advanced by the time it was detected. ”He wasn’t the type to rush to the doctor, so by the time he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, it had already metastasised and there was no chance of him surviving,” she explained.
Suzie joined The Repair Shop at the beginning of series two, in 2017 -Credit:BBC/Ricochet Ltd/Steve Peskett
In her touching memoir, The Sun Over The Mountains, Suzie recalled the moment that she knew Rob had given up his fight with cancer. She described how he had shrunk to almost “skeletal” proportions, but had been determined to go on one last motorcycling holiday.
As they stopped for a break, Rob was clearly struggling to wrestle his ride into a bike rack. Before Suzie could come to his aid, some other bikers went over to help him.
Rob, who had taken to wearing multiple t-shirts to hide his increasingly frail frame, accepted the bikers’ offer, telling them “Look, man, I got cancer.”
“I saw the humiliation in his face,” Susie wrote, ”but there was an acceptance too.”
She has become a popular member of the team -Credit:Daily Mirror
She added: “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.
“Until then he’d been fighting hard, but now he had crossed over that indiscernible line that divides living and letting go.”
After Rob’s death, Suzie’s younger brother Steve recommended her to bosses at The Repair Shop – and she says the show has helped her deal with the grief of losing her husband.
Suzie explained: “Every time [Steve] called he looked to be having such a good time I jokingly said, ‘If they need anyone to do leather I’m your gal.'”
She added: “I really was joking but after several phone calls and a lot of reassurance from Steve I agreed to give it a go and joined the team.
“I’m so happy I did as this is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever been involved with and it’s also helped me through some very dark days.”