I can’t ring.. but I can write & say I love you
Schoolgirl’s letters to heaven help ease grief across Britain
MATILDA Handy missed her gran and grandad so much that she dreamed of sending them cards and letters all the way to heaven.
The nine-year-old’s heartwarming idea so impressed the crematorium where her mum works that it installed an old postbox painted white for families to send messages to loved ones. Matilda was the first to use it. Since the box was set up, just before Christmas, more than 100 “letters to heaven” have been posted at Gedling Crematorium, in Lambley, Notts. Similar postboxes are to be installed at 36 other sites run by the Westerleigh Group.
Matilda lost her post office worker grandmother Pat in 2017 and grandad Keith in November.
Mum Leanne, 45, hopes her daughter’s heartfelt creation can ease the grief of families on anniversaries and holidays.
Leanne, of Arnold, Nottingham, said: “My mum and dad are in heaven and so we’re sending them letters.
“My mum worked in a post office for 25 years in our local community and it just seemed fitting. We wanted to unveil it at Christmas... at the right time. I had a lady who really struggled as she couldn’t send her mum a Christmas card. The postbox had a big impact on her.
“It’s used every day. People find real comfort sending something.”
Matilda’s first letter contained this moving poem: “If heaven had a phone, Then I’d give you a ring. Just hear your voice and tell you, How my day has been. But it doesn’t have a phone, To make missing you better, So instead I write my feelings down. And send them in a letter.
“I know that you’ll be watching, As I write down every word, And I’ll feel it when you reply, The unwritten and unheard.”
Matthew Brook, head of memorialisation at Westerleigh, said: “Matilda’s postbox has touched hearts of so many bereaved people across the country.
“We are delighted to be installing similar postboxes across all Westerleigh Group crematoria.”
Matilda’s post box touched the hearts of so many
MATTHEW BROOK CREMATORIA GROUP