If you are like me and a follower of the Minack Chronicles, you'll be saddened to learn that Susie Tangye has died at the age of 29. She brings to a close the final chapter of Derek and Jeannie's lives on the Cornish clifftops but their memories will live on.
If you are like me and a follower of the Minack Chronicles, you'll be saddened to learn that Susie Tangye has died at the age of 29. She brings to a close the final chapter of Derek and Jeannie's lives on the Cornish clifftops but their memories will live on.
As a young girl I remember picking up a book from a charity shop called A Donkey in the Meadow. It was the picture on the front cover that first caught my eye - a donkey foal! Now 30 years on, I still have that book, together with a full collection of the "Minack Chronicles".
Two donkey weeker friends, Julia and Dennis, knew Derek and visited him regularly at Minack and in his memory, they have memorial plaques in the Russell Garden here at the Sanctuary, along with one for Jeannie and Merlin. Each year they lay flowers on Memorial Day and this year they will be laying flowers for Susie.
Merlin and Susie were Derek's two remaining donkeys and after his death in 1996, as he had instructed, they both came to live here at the Sanctuary. Merlin sadly passed away himself in 2005 and now Susie closes the book.
It was always a wish of mine to walk in Oliver Land at Minack and that wish came true a few years ago. It seems like only yesterday as I remember sitting on Ambrose Rock imagining all of Derek and Jeannie's animals running free in the piece of land that is now a nature reserve. Now Susie has joined them in a place of solitude.
Goodbye sweet, gentle Susie.
