Update November - to accompany the card we're sending

Memories of the terrifying few weeks of Bill's suffering persist for all 3 of us. I know the grief we experience when someone we love dies is different for everybody. I'm finding it very hard and in their different ways so are the boys. But fundamentally I also know we will get through it and eventually will be able to remember the good times. For us here forest and nature are a wonderful comfort, along with the support of so many of you our family and friends reading this message. We have a lot to be thankful for. And I will be ready to help in any way I can anyone whom grief befalls - one thing I've learned is that there are a lot of us going through this, and another is that the right kind of comfort really does help.

After the funeral, in early May we 3 flew to Portugal for a week's escape and Olly's 30th birthday, and began tentatively to make some new memories.

In August Olly and I braved visiting the little apartment in the French Alps which Bill and I bought 4 years ago and in which we'd anticipated spending lots of happy times over the coming years; despite the sad memories it still felt a very special place to be. Then in September Claire and Dave took me with them for a week's holiday in beautiful Galicia and we spent a further week at Stephen's lovely house on the Canal du Midi in France. All of this travel was definitely a tonic, but it's also a privilege to live on in this fabulous house on the forest which Bill and I chose together all those years ago to be our family home.

In September Olly, Rich and I took the combined decision that a puppy would help! Little Laki (Pacific Islands name means lucky) came from the same expert Weimaraner breeder as Shyla (now nearly 14) and is distantly related to her too. She is officially Rich's but we're all in love with this gorgeous little creature. 

Meanwhile Bill's friends at Lymington Tennis had honoured him with the purchase of a table and bench set with a plaque in his memory, and his colleagues at St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery where he was a Trustee have something special planned too.  

For Bill's 70th birthday we walked one of Bill's favourite routes with a group of lovely friends: wading through the rivers and lakes of this November's New Forest, still the colours of the trees were beautiful...

For Christmas we couldn't face we couldn't face Bartley House Kitchen without Bill in charge and we're going to France, with fingers crossed for snow. 

With love for your Christmasses, Jane, Olly & Rich.

PS If you feel like posting more messages and photos here please do!

Update 1 May

Thank you so so much to all of you who attended Bill's funeral last Tuesday and to the many more who have sent and continue to send cards, messages and donations to RSPB or Oakhaven.

Olly, Rich and Jane are overwhelmed by the kindness of so many and by the love, affection and respect which you have all been showing to our adored husband and dad, which honour his memory and help to comfort us in our grief.

With the funeral and gatherings now past, our small metaphorical steps towards our new normal lives are beginning, slowly. Including planning the location and planting the lovely plants you brought in the garden. If you're passing, do call in!

Bill's illness and death

Bill Porter died on 1 April 2023. As well as a beloved husband and adored dad he was also a much loved son, brother and uncle, and good friend to many. He was also a respected colleague of many more. Until recently he was playing tennis, skiing and hiking...loving his life and family, and had lots of plans for the future including the model railway he'd just started to build.

However, in early February he received the devastating diagnosis of an aggressive melanoma cancer which had attacked his brain in multiple places. After the initial shock he was optimistic that the radiotherapy and immunotherapy promptly administered by the oncology teams at Southampton General would at least buy him time. But despite the treatment and his bravery and positivity, Bill was up against an aggressor too powerful and he died in Oakhaven Hospice on 1 April.

Please do continue to post memories and photos where indicated - they're lovely for us to see.

We're suggesting donations to be made if people would like to, to a nature or wildlife related charity of your choice. Or you can click one of the links here, either to conservation charity RSPB or to Oakhaven Hospice which provides compassionate comforting end of life care day in day out to the people of the New Forest when they need it.