To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video The Repair Shop viewers have been left in floods of tears after seeing the emotional transformation of a chair. On the latest episode of the BBC series , Lee from London asked if a leather armchair he purchased with his late partner 40 years ago could be restored. As he explained to host Jay Blades and upholstery restorer Sonnaz Nooranvary, the chair was the first item of furniture they purchased together.
The couple had first met at a bar in Athens in 1983, while Lee was on holiday and Greg was serving in the American Air Force. ‘I caught a glimpse of him in the mirror and I said he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen..
.and that was the start of the most wonderful relationship,’ he said. However, he said ‘the trouble started’ when they tried to do their best to be together, with Greg repeatedly facing visa troubles as he attempted to settle in the UK.
But, in 1986, he was finally able to stay. ‘Everything was beautiful. We had a brand-new life and brand new flat together and this was our first piece of furniture we got together to build our home,’ Lee shared.
However, six months later Greg found out he was HIV positive. He died within the year, just a few weeks before his 30th birthday. ‘If you were HIV positive you were going to die and I lost so many friends too,’ Lee reflected.
But he said having the chair and knowing the memories it held was.