The families joined our Bereavement Support Workers, Vanessa and Charlotte, for a coffee in The Orangery Tea House at the garden centre, giving them an opportunity to share and chat with others who have also lost a child and understand what they are going through. 

The sun was shining as our families spent the rest of the morning collecting fruit, vegetables, and flowers to take home and enjoy – some delicious looking crumbles were baked when they got home! The children who came along played and interacted with each other as they decided which delicious treats to pick.

One mum who attended said: “Thank you for inviting us to the fruit picking fun, we had a great time. I knew for my personal healing meeting other parents that have lost children would be good. I feel I need to go to these group bereavement meet-ups.”

Another mum added: “Thank you so much for this morning. We had such lovely family time. Sunflowers are our son’s flower, so it was really special for us to see them, we got some to put on his grave tomorrow and our other son loved exploring through them.”

Ben Thompson, Director at Garsons Farm shared, “We were delighted to welcome several of the families that our Charity of the Year, Momentum Children’s Charity, help support to spend a day with us here at Garson Farm. We can’t begin to understand what they have and are going through, but we hope their time together picking fruit, vegetables and flowers in the fresh outdoors surrounded by growing crops and nature was enjoyed and gave a little timeout from the everyday.”

A huge thank you to the team at Garsons Esher – we really appreciate your support!

Find out more about our Echoes service here