Bedfordshire Sands Memorial Garden

For anyone who has suffered the loss of a baby, finding ways to connect and spend time with them can often be difficult. It’s one of the many reasons we started our podcast.

With the memorial garden, the team at Bedfordshire Sands have created a safe space that enables us all to do this. A space within Bedford Crematorium has been turned, no actually enhanced, into a beautiful and tranquil area where I and many other parents go. Peace, reflection, emotion they all get released in an area of safety and understanding.

Whenever I visit the gardens I feel I am able to turn off the noise of life and concentrate solely on Charlie. The flapping wings of a butterfly, the breeze rustling the leaves, the buzzing of the bee flying around the flowers we helped plant some months before. For a space that makes me think of the life we have lost, it brings with it so much life too. I can spend hours on our bench looking at our pebble they have so kindly engraved with Charlie’s name - amongst all his friends and other pebbles. Such sadness it brings seeing all the names of our babies, but a calmness knowing Charlie is there somewhere playing with all his friends.

Bedfordshire Sands not only provide a pebble for your baby but also organise memory days at the garden across the year. Such as during Babyloss awareness week where all parents have the opportunity to go along and write a ribbon for our babies and plant bulbs ready for the wave of colour to appear in spring.

It’s honestly such a magical place and we are so thankful to Bedfordshire Sands for creating this environment. It’s our favourite place to go to feel close to Charlie - we feel him growing with us during the different seasons as we visit.