Memorial restored for Baby Loss Awareness Week ahead of annual event

A baby memorial at Slough Crematorium has been lovingly cleaned up to commemorate Baby Loss Awareness week.

The poignant monument has been based at the crematorium for more than 10 years and provides a peaceful place for parents to remember children who have passed away.

On Thursday, October 5, family-run business Ross Stonecraft spent several hours cleaning the memorial.

The team not only jet washed the area, but replaced the white chippings and repainted the wording on display.

Madhuri Bedi, founder of the Vishaal Foundation, extended her heartfelt gratitude for the clean-up operation which will allow families to continue to remember and honour their precious babies.

She said: “What they’ve done is just amazing. The memorial has been there for a good 10 to 12 years and… it looks just like when it was first put up.”

Madhuri told the Express that Ross Stonecraft first created the headstone when her own son passed away 20 years ago.

The business was more than happy to help out when she told them that the monument required some tender love and care.

Talking about her son, Madhuri said: “We had to switch off his life support machine a day in to his life and the Vishaal Foundation has come about because of that.

“When a baby dies, there’s no memories to speak off. Nothing that you can share. But you want to speak about that child – dead or alive, they’re your child.

“We wanted to honour and remember our babies in an environment where there’s total understanding and you don’t have to explain to anyone why you’re doing this.”

According to Frimley Health, around 12,000 families in the UK experience the tragic loss of babies due to stillbirth, miscarriage or neonatal death annually, and Frimley cares for about 150 of these families.

The Vishaal Foundation will honour these children in its annual Wave of Light Service in Herschel Park this weekend.

The organisers welcome anybody who has been touched by the loss of a child during pregnancy, birth, childhood, or into adulthood.

The Wave of Light is a global event that falls at the end of Baby Loss Awareness Week, now in its eighth year.

The event on October 15, enables families to light a candle at 7pm to ‘create a ripple of light throughout the world, in honour and remembrance of the children gone too soon’.

Madhuri said ‘every lantern represents a parents love and loss of their precious baby’.

“It’s cathartic. It started to support parents who had lost babies. But as the years passed, we realised people who had lost their child, regardless of what age, were attending. It really helps them,” she said.

“There’s people who come there and hold each other, and it’s such a beautiful feeling because everyone understands why you’re there. Everyone is supporting everyone.”

The event brings together businesses and community groups, including volunteers from Together as One and Slough Hub, and visitors can stay for tea or coffee after floating a candle in the lake.

Madhuri said: “So many people come together to make this happen. It’s a really big labour of love that we’ve been working on for months to make sure it’s a perfect day for everyone.”

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