The Littlest Australian
Wasn't it incredible on Saturday? It seemed the entire universe had descended on Greenwich Park as the first decent day of the year saw almost as many people enjoying the slightly freaky weather as did a few weeks ago in the snow.But it was an email I received during the snowiest snow for 18 years that took me into the park this weekend.
The day after the snow, I was slightly puzzled (but rather flattered) to recieve a truly international postbag - from Greenwichians-at-heart around the world who'd logged on to get pictures of their favourite town in the snow. The furthest two (within an hour or so of each other) came from either side of Australia - which was receiving its own share of freak weather conditions, albeit at the other end of the scale.
It's always great to hear from people around the world - especially the ones who have great stories to tell, but one in particular really touched my heart. James and Kay, who now live in Canberra, told me to look out for a special bench in Greenwich Park, along Lovers' Walk. It is a memorial to their baby daughter Lauren...
I decided that Lauren deserved more than the cold, grey weather we've been having, so when I went to look for it, it would be on the first day of Spring - or at least the first promise of the season.
So I worked my way up Lovers' Walk in Saturday's sunshine, looking, I guess, rather dodgy, peering at the little plaques on the benches in between the people who were actually sitting on them. I missed it at first - a man and his large dog were enjoying its dappled sun - but when I did find it, I was rather surprised to find that I'd actually photographed it before - in the snow two years ago:
It's on the left, set a little back from the path - and a lovely spot to sit in the spring sunshine and think of the "Littlest Australian." 
Labels: Greenwich People
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
08:08
10 Comments:
What a sad story. I will look out for this bench at the weekend.
Ahh.. wow. WE LOVE GREENWICH!
In a corner of a foreign land...
and such a beautiful corner too.
RIP little Lauren.
Stillbirth is such a sad thing to happen. Only a few weeks ago my partner's niece lost a baby at full-term.
(Thank-you to everyone, including the Greenwich Phantom, for your messages.) Lauren was my little girl and Greenwich will forever be a very, very special place. We will come back there again. I went on to have another little girl (Helen, now 5yrs) born on 08.08.03 by coincidence exactly one year later to the day, if not moment that Lauren died. My husband and I will always love Greenwich - especially the park.
What a beautiful memorial to Lauren. I have the priveledge to know Kay and know how hard it was to leave England because of Lauren. I feel the same way, after losing my son to stillbirth April 2001 and moving back to the States this past September. His anniversary will be very strange with us not being where he was born..............
I looked for the bench today on my walk and was suprised to find it was one I had walked past hundreds of times without ever noticing the plaque.As a perpetual reader of benches,I put this down to the fact that it is a very well used seat. Because of it's position,I often see families having picnics there and children playing around it. I hope knowing this will give the family some pleasure from such a sad, sad situation.
home thoughts from abroad
oh, to be in England
now that April's there
and whoever wakes in England
sees, some morning, unaware
that the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf
while the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
in England - now
and after April when May follows
and the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows
hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
leans to the field and scatters on the clover
blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge -
that's the wise thrush he sings each song twice over
lest you should think he never could recapture
the first fine careless rapture
and though the fields look rough with hoary dew
all will be gay when noontide wakes anew
the buttercups the little children's dower
far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower
robert browning
I hope 'James' is reading this as I walk past this bench most days, when I'm taking my own babies out for a stroll. This is the bench that makes me feel so grateful for my children. Lauren will never be forgotten, even by strangers such as me.
Flora, Nicki and "Scared of Chives", thank-you sincerely for your messages. (This is Kay, mother of Lauren). My little baby died inside me on 8th August 2002 and was stillborn two days later. By complete coincidence I went on to have another little girl born on 8th August 2003 at what we think was probably the same time that Lauren died. I do not know the reason why this happened. We tried so hard at the hospital to make sure this did not happen. I have taken a lot of comfort from "Kahlil Gibran" - "On Joy and Sorrow". A poem that now, for all the wrong reasons, makes perfect sense. If you have children, please treasure them. Even six years later ... I still cry. I have spoken to others in the same situation. They say, "You never get over it. You simply have to learn how to live with it, and that takes a lifetime."
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home