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Boater Les Biggs, NB Valerie has died


Wyn2joy

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Hello everyone,

 

I am Les' wife Jaqueline. I was not often on here, but Les was nearly every day, scrolling through new content, checking out what everyone else on the cut was up to. Les found CWDF a valuable place to seek answers to questions about how to accomplish one project or another.

 

My Best Beloved and soul mate died yesterday after we spent three years fighting rectal cancer. He did not have an easy death. Les simply did not want to leave me or our boat. After four long days and nights of heart rending struggle as I lived and slept by his side at the Hospice of St. Francis in Berkhamsted, Les took his last breath in my arms with his boat keys tucked in his hands.

 

Please visit our blog Boatlife to read his epitaph.

 

In peace and deep sadness,

 

Jaq

Edited by Wyn2joy
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Sorry to hear of your sad loss, I've also been following the blog so was aware of your problems. We last met on the Hatton Flight a couple of years ago when Les looked fit and healthy, you were the one he was worried about then, I think it was a hip problem. I think you've had enough bad fortune now, hopefully it is time for a change of luck

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Jaq,

I'm very sorry to hear this, although obviously not unexpected to anybody who had followed any of the detail of his difficult final months.

 

We live literally within a mile of the Hospice of St Francis, who have a phenomenal reputation for caring for the terminally ill, so I hope at least you take comfort that he was able to receive some of the very best care available anywhere in his final days. The facility to be able to stay permanently alongside a partner is denied to many in such circumstances, and although I'm sure it can't have been easy for you, it must have brought Les much comfort. As an aside former work colleague of mine recently passed away in the Hospice, at a very much younger age than Les, and his wife and teenage daughter were also able to reside alongside him - this seems to have been very important to them as well.

Obviously you still have many difficult days to come, but I hope you are eventually able to move forward and make the right decisions about your life ahead. You seem an immensely driven person, and I hope this will help you at this very sad time.

Alan

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Jaq,

 

I'm very sorry to hear this, although obviously not unexpected to anybody who had followed any of the detail of his difficult final months.

 

We live literally within a mile of the Hospice of St Francis, who have a phenomenal reputation for caring for the terminally ill, so I hope at least you take comfort that he was able to receive some of the very best care available anywhere in his final days. The facility to be able to stay permanently alongside a partner is denied to many in such circumstances, and although I'm sure it can't have been easy for you, it must have brought Les much comfort. As an aside former work colleague of mine recently passed away in the Hospice, at a very much younger age than Les, and his wife and teenage daughter were also able to reside alongside him - this seems to have been very important to them as well.

 

Obviously you still have many difficult days to come, but I hope you are eventually able to move forward and make the right decisions about your life ahead. You seem an immensely driven person, and I hope this will help you at this very sad time.

 

Alan

 

 

Well said Alan.

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My sincere thanks to everyone who commented on my post about Les' death. He loved boating---almost as much as he loved me and that is saying something because his love for me is infinite and deep. I am extremely grateful I took a chance on love, gave up my career, my home, my family and my country to marry Les and go cruising with him. I have no regrets.

 

I am grateful in fact, that if Les had to die, we were living on our narrowboat and not in a house on land; on land when our partner dies, we eventually empty it of their personal belongings as we move through mourning and get back to living in a home built by some company. On board NB Valerie, there is not a single thing that has not been shaped and crafted by my husband's loving hands. He took pleasure in adding bookshelves, cupboards, a composting toilet, charging stations, and many other changes to our boat in order to ensure it was a comfortable home for me. Les is everywhere in this boat, and it feels as though in some way he is still here, with his arms around me, looking out for me. The last six months of Les' life he undertook dozens of projects aboard NBV in order to ensure I could continue to cruise on my own.

 

We both agreed when I first came on the boat that I needed to learn to do everything Les could do aboard NBV. If he ever fell ill it would be up to me to take care of him and our home, and sadly it actually came to pass. Les was an excellent boatman and he taught me well. He helped me practice singlehanded locking up and down smaller sets of locks, from Berkhamsted up to Tring summit for example and then down the Marsworth flight and had me move the boat into and out of the locks on my own, standing back and providing verbal instruction. I can continue to cruise on my own because Les made sure I could do so. It was simply another way he showed his great love for me, as he knew how much I love this life.

 

I am also grateful that we were on a boat when he fell ill because the incredible support we've had from all over the canal system by other boaters has been nothing less than amazing and such a system of support does not exist on land in housing estates, towns and cities anymore. People in flats and houses barely know who thier neightbor is and often rarely speak to them. I am sustained and uplifted by my fellow boaters and humbly grateful for the support, kindness, and friendship I know is waiting for me on the cut in the days and months to come as I strike out on my own.

 

Les called the gates on the public footpaths, kissing gates, for he would not let me pass through one without stopping to kiss me. Our love story does not end; it will continue until I die and Les' spirit will be there to meet me at the kissing gate, to help me pass through the veil between the worlds. Love never dies; love is all there is, and those who are remembered live on in us.

 

After all the admin stuff has been dealt with, and I have made a trip home to my American family so we can scatter some of Les' ashes on Kamiak Butte in Washington State where were married, I will return and wind NB Valerie, heading north for the narrow canals. I will stop along the cut to scatter some of Les' ashes at each place he loved and where we found great joy in our lives together. I look forward to seeing some of you out there as I go. If you knew Les and have a good "Les" story to tell I hope you will hail me and we can moor up, and lift a cuppa or glass to his memory.

 

Bright Blessings,

 

Jaq

Edited by Wyn2joy
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Hi Yank,

Thank you for those lovely words. You are correct--Les is always with me, because I carry his heart in mine. The PNW is such a lovely slice of country. Lookimng forward to going back to see my American family in a few weeks, although I saw Eastern WA has about a foot of snow and has had some pretty cold weather below zero farneheit.

Jaq


Yes Mike I will definitely be blogging as a when.

Jaq

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