I helped create postbox to heaven so we can send letters to lost loved ones, says nine-year-old girl
GRIEVING relatives across the UK will be able to post letters to lost loved ones — thanks to a nine-year-old girl’s heart-warming idea.
Matilda Handy suggested installing a letters to heaven postbox at a crematorium as she mourned her grandparents.
She wanted to send them cards and letters and was the first to use the white-painted box when it was installed just before Christmas.
The idea proved so popular at Gedling Crematorium, near Nottingham, that boxes will now be introduced at 36 more sites owned by operator, Westerleigh Group.
Matilda said the postbox had helped her come to terms with her losses, adding: “It’s just a very nice way to express my feelings.”
She thought of the idea when her post office worker grandmother Pat Morris died in 2017 and again when she lost her grandad Keith Handy in November last year.
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Her mum, Leanne, 45, who works at Gedling Crematorium, persuaded bosses to try the idea. In the few weeks it has been up, more than 100 letters have been posted.
Leanne, from Arnold, Nottingham, said it was decided to install it just before Christmas as many grieving people found it a difficult time.
She added: “People find real comfort in sending something, whether it’s a child drawing a picture or an older person sending something to their loved ones.
“The art of writing something helps with the process.
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“To think this little idea, to actually be in crematoriums across the country and helping thousands of families, we just never imagined it.”
Matthew Brook, head of memorialisation at Westerleigh Group, said: “Matilda’s postbox has touched hearts of so many bereaved people.”
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