Staff choose meaningful words for memorial garden

Poignant words put forward by Solent NHS Trust staff are to have a permanent place in a new charity-funded memorial garden about to be built in Portsmouth.

The meaningful words will be featured in stonework and on wooden benches at the site in the grounds of St James’ Hospital.

Intended as a space for quiet reflection, the garden will give staff somewhere to rest and remember family, friends and colleagues who are sadly no longer with us.

The project, being funded by Solent NHS Trust’s Charitable Funds Committee, follows overwhelming sentiment expressed  by staff wishing to do something to remember work friends and others they have lost.

Over the summer, staff were asked to suggest positive and poignant words of significance relevant to their teams, the Trust and the wider NHS to be featured in the new green space.

More than 50 words were put forward and, from those, a panel selected a final 12 to appear in the memorial garden.

The words which will be featured are:

Work on the new memorial garden, which will be opposite The Limes building, is due to start in early September and should be finished by the end of October.

Mark Young, Associate Director of Estates Transformation, said: “We had an excellent response from a wide mix of staff from across the organisation, with several words cropping up repeatedly.

“Our panel has chosen the words which seemed to resonate most with people and will work best at the site. Thanks go to everyone who took the time to contact us with their suggestions.

“Although based at St James’, the garden will be available to all staff across the Trust; colleagues will  be free to visit whenever they feel the need for some quiet time to sit and remember those who have passed.”

Once finished, the garden will feature curved benching around a focal point intended for quiet reflection. The project will also include planting, hedging and a new path.

 

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