The Repair Shop fans were reduced to tears as a grieving couple unearthed a secret message left to them by their late son during Tuesday’s episode of the BBC show.
John and Margaret Ivin appeared on the programme to see if the experts could do anything with a section of plaster from their kitchen wall that they found while giving their cooking space a makeover last summer.
To their surprise, they had found a message written by their beloved boy Christopher when he was 14.
Margaret told the expert: ‘Where they’d taken one of the original cupboards off the wall, this was behind it…
‘And it was a complete shock to see it there…’
Expert craftsman Dominic Chinea was keen to know who wrote it and she explained: ‘It was our late son Christopher. Back when he was about 14.’
The Repair Shop fans were reduced to tears as a grieving couple (pictured) unearthed a secret message left to them by their late son during Tuesday’s episode of the BBC show
John and Margaret Ivin appeared on the programme to see if the experts could do anything with a section of plaster from their kitchen wall that they found while giving their cooking space a makeover last summer (pictured)
The message said: ‘This is original wallpaper. Friday 4:15 8th December 1989.
‘Please leave this wallpaper, Chris.’
Margaret explained: ‘He would often scribble little notes that he would leave around the house, some of them saying “I love you”.’
Chris had a very rare form of testicular cancer and passed away aged 35, 18 months after his diagnosis.
Fighting back the tears, Margaret said: ‘When you lose a child, you never get over it, you get through it.
‘We’ve just got through it.’
Speaking about finding the note, she said: ‘It was just amazing. I couldn’t believe it when we saw it.’
The builder managed to get it off the wall in one piece, but it crumbled when Margaret placed it down on the bed, but they don’t want to throw it away.
Margaret explained: ‘He would often scribble little notes that he would leave around the house, some of them saying “I love you”‘
Fighting back the tears, Margaret was over the moon with the final product and said: ‘Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Even the torn bits of paper back together’
‘It would be so nice to have it back, his handwriting would be a treasure, a real treasure,’ Margaret said.
After Rob worked his magic, the couple couldn’t believe their eyes.
Fighting back the tears, Margaret said: ‘Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Even the torn bits of paper back together.
‘Better than I ever would have imagined it to be.’
John said: ‘He was a lovely boy.’
Those watching at home got very emotional.
‘That was such a lovely repair and the tears flowed #therepairshop.’
‘That wallpaper repair is superb. #therepairshop.’
Many rushed to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their emotional responses to the segment on the show
‘I love #therepairshop and that bit of old plaster with writing from their son that passed away was a brilliant job and soooooo moving.’
‘Yeah that one’s emotional…’
It comes after a guest on The Repair Shop revealed she was speechless as a prized item dubbed ‘part of the family’ was totally transformed.
Husband and wife David and Carol, from Wales, brought along a huge soft toy hound dog to be restored.
The couple explained that the 53-year-old toy had been gifted to the UK Elvis Presley fan club by Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, as a thank you for travelling to see the star in Las Vegas.
The fan club looked after the toy for sometime before a fan won it in a competition – however she tragically passed away earlier this year.
David and Carol said the former owner wanted the hound dog to be passed on to other fans of Elvis so they brought it to The Repair Shop to ‘give him his pedigree back’.
The Repair Shop airs Tuesdays at 8pm on BBC One and is available to stream on iPlayer.
