Cemetery postbox allows letters to late loved ones

A postbox has been installed in a village cemetery to give people the chance to write letters to loved ones they have lost.

Lucy Early suggested it for the site on Dyers Lane in Wolston, Warwickshire, after her husband and the father of her children, Martin, died in 2017.

After its installation she said the white postbox was "absolutely beautiful, I love it".

Lorraine Knowles, the clerk for the Wolston, Brandon and Bretford Joint Burial Committee, stated letters would remain closed and be composted "on site and then that compost used to feed plants in the cemetery".

Early said: "It's really important to get your thoughts out on paper sometimes, just to get it out your head and write the letter and have somewhere to put it.

"I remember I wrote a letter... about four pages long. I put it on the grave and it just got soaked and I just think it would have been nice for it to go somewhere so beautiful like [the postbox]."

Martin Early was the "loveliest bloke, he was kind, he was really sensitive, he loved animals, he loved F1", his widow explained.

Saying her husband took his own life, she added: "People would sort of skirt round it, whereas I think I've always been very open.

"It is still a little bit of a taboo, although it's much better now. There's loads more... men's groups, women's groups.

"I don't want him to be, like, that's how he died. I want something positive to come of it and just anything that can be done to make people more aware of the help that's out there... would be amazing."

She said in terms of support "there are some amazing places out there, Guy's Gift... we had family counselling there".

"There's Winston's Wish [bereavement support for children] as well. It's been awful, but there are a lot of places that can help."

The mother said she was in grief Facebook groups and added she was sure a girl had organised for a similar postbox to go in a local village "and I just thought 'oh, that would be amazing'."

"I just thought that'd be so good to have something like that in the Wolston graveyard where Martin is... and obviously nice for other people as well, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, things like that."

She started looking at companies that made them and put the proposal forward.

The cemetery is owned jointly by Wolston Parish Council and Brandon and Bretford Parish Council and managed by the joint burial committee.

Knowles said the letters would be handled with sensitivity.

"I will open the postbox, take them out, they will not be read, they will not be opened."

The clerk stated she thought she would go once a month and keep a record of the number to see how the postbox was beng used.

Speaking about the location, she said: "There's always somebody here either visiting or just sitting."

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