Westerleigh Group begins national installation of memorial post boxes
Westerleigh Group has started a programme of works to install ‘Letters to Heaven’ memorial post boxes at all its crematoria following the overwhelming positive response to its first one.
Just before Christmas the first post box, which allows people to send letters and cards to loved ones they have lost, was unveiled at Gedling Crematorium and proved very popular, with more than 100 items being posted within the first few weeks.
The memorial post box captured the attention – and won the hearts - of people from all over the UK and abroad, as well as widespread media attention.
As a result Westerleigh Group decided it would install similar memorial post boxes at every one of its facilities.
Westerleigh Group is the UK’s largest independent owner and operator of crematoria and cemeteries, with 37 sites in England, Scotland, and Wales, all set within beautifully landscaped gardens of remembrance which provide pleasant, tranquil places for people to visit and reflect.
By the end of the year, the group will operate 40 sites, and each will have a Letters to Heaven post box.
Great Glen Crematorium was the second to unveil its post box, followed by Vale Royal Crematorium and another is set to be unveiled very soon at Waseley Hills Crematorium.
It was all the idea of nine-year-old Matilda, daughter of Gedling Crematorium’s Memorial Advisor, Leanne Handy, whose father passed away in 2003 and mother passed away in 2017.
Leanne said: “It all came about because Matilda was always saying she wished we could send Mamma and Grandad birthday and Christmas cards for them to read. She was four when my mum died, and never met my dad.
“Now the post box is in place, I am so pleased that local people are using it, and taking some comfort from it, as another way of feeling connected to their loved ones.
“We were thrilled by the positive response to the box and I feel very proud. We’ve had amazing comments from members of the community who have used it, about the comfort they have gained from writing letters and cards.
“Matilda and I were even more delighted when we learned that Westerleigh Group was going to install similar boxes across all its crematoria so that people all over the country will be able to use them.”
For updates about Letters to Heaven post box at Wessex Vale Crematorium, follow the site’s news section or facebook page.
