15 stone tortoises were Val’s passion
VAL and I were married just five days after she turned 18. She died leaving behind two daughters, Dawn and Donna, five grandchildren, a herd of alpacas, a flock of sheep, five dogs, lots of tortoises and, after 41 years of marriage, me.
But this is not a sad story. Val spent every single minute of her 59 years living life to the full and having a go at anything with her relentless energy.
We met in 1973. I’d just opened a garden centre and had advertised for staff. Val turned up, fresh out of school but with a boyfriend in tow. So I kept my distance until one day when she said: ‘How about a date?’ I thought about it for about a split second, said ‘yes’. We were married as soon as possible. Her mother said: ‘It won’t last.’ But it did and it was fun.
As a young woman, she loved riding motorbikes — on road, off road and occasionally in races, but mostly for the sheer joy of powering along at speed. When she set her mind on something, nothing would stop her. Not the terrible accident she had on her 50cc bike when she was just 17 — she rode into a car and had operations over the next 20 years to repair the damage to her leg.
And certainly not her general health problems. It wasn’t until 2000 that doctors finally diagnosed her with the auto-immune disease lupus, which was a huge blow, but I never once saw her cry for herself — only for other people or animals. She didn’t let it get her down or stop her looking after her beloved animals.
Lucky we had a big garden! Because, over the years, we also had goats, geese and six giant tortoises. Tortoises were her great passion — she adored them, particularly the big ones. Her heaviest, Bonnie and Clyde, weighed over 15st each.
She was also a brilliant organist and a wonderful mother and grandmother.
In November 2016 Val caught a virus and broke her pelvis and pubic bone. She survived two bouts of septicaemia, but a third proved too much.
Amazingly throughout, she was never sad, never down. She has left a huge hole in our hearts. Valerie Fowler, born September 15, 1957, died May 13, 2017, aged 59.