In Memory
As I write this, I am on my way home from a very special service. It’s held every year at the church in Trafalgar Square; St Martin-in-the-Fields.
The postcard. The ‘canvas’ used by the artist Kollier Din-Bangura is a Westminister Council refuse sack.
The service commemorates all those who have been homeless, and have died in London in the past year. In four tranches, the names are read out, 152 this year, so we can remember each of them individually. Then we hold a silent moment for the 52 whose names we do not know.
After each set of names, the reader gives us some insight into the lives of one of those individuals. There was the most beautiful tribute to a Polish man who the reader described as ‘never losing hope’. The loneliness and the devastating loss of his job with no family or friends around to support him were heartbreaking.
After the reading of the names, there is an act of remembrance. We are all invited to go and collect a postcard which has one of the names written on it so we can continue to remember that person. It must have taken ten minutes for everyone in the main body of the church and the galleries upstairs, to file silently, up to the altar to collect a card. 600 cards had had names written on them and they were all given out.
I know this service from my previous life as a radio producer when part of my job was to make a short 15-min feature about homelessness for the Radio 4 Christmas appeal. The very first time I went, I recall making the decision not to record the names, though they were powerful. It was because of the risk, maybe very slight, that someone would learn that a loved one had died by hearing their name read out on the radio.
On this occasion, I was sat amongst my friends from the Museum of Homelessness where I volunteer in the garden. One of the things that the Museum does in its Dying Homeless Project is record the number of people who have died homeless across the UK.
No one else gathers all this information in one place, so it is painstaking work, requiring freedom of information requests. You can see the report they published in October here. The Museum have just launched their Winter Appeal, looking to raise £15,000, if you would like to give a donation, of whatever size, I know they would be grateful. Here is the link to the appeal.
In other news
Thanks to those who responded to last weeks blog. A quick update - this weekend I am re-recording in person the interview I mentioned last week. The 81 year old just happens to be speaking at an event only an hour from me so Sam and I will be there. This will now be the first plant story of the new series in Feb 2026.
By chance Francesca from Series 2 Ep 4 contacted me last Thursday to invite me to a workshop she was running about gardeners glees - songs. So I went along with my recording equipment and you can hear the result below - it went out this week, filling the gap left by the other plant story. I love serendipity.
At the service for the homeless I bumped into Pam Orchard - Series 1 Ep 4. You may recall (and if you don’t do take a listen - I have put a link below) the beautiful plant story about mint which begins with a flash mob in Trafalgar Square playing the Ukrainian national anthem in March 2022. It leads to Pam hosting a Ukrainian refugee - Anya and this is Anya’s mint story. She has studied in London, living with Pam, for 3 years and Pam told me that Anya has just graduated with a 2:1. Congratulations!
If you are reading this as a blog post, you can click on ‘see original post’ to hear the 2 episodes I have mentioned.
Have a lovely weekend
Sally
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