It is with the deepest of pain and incredible sadness that I have to write this letter.
Send your letters to bctletters@caxton.co.za.
My late husband and I have been members of the Northfield Methodist Church for over 20 years.
We were married in 1996 by Trevor Hudson .
Our two children, Paula and John, were both confirmed there.
In 2008 our son John passed away of a heart attack at the age of 24.
We requested permission to place a wishing well in the remembrance garden and, over the years, have placed many mementos on and around this wishing well.
Trevor blessed and scattered our son’s ashes there and, to me, the soil is sacred.
This has all been desiccated with the destruction of the wishing well, with the upgrading of the remembrance garden.
There was no notification in the church notices saying: “Could the owner of the wishing well please contact the office”.
I was told by a friend that it was no longer there.
My daughter had been and placed more mementos to her dad and brother just before Christmas 2015.
I am appalled that no one could make the effort to find out who the wishing well belonged to.
In my opinion the “Northfield pastoral care team” could not be bothered.
There was a brass plaque attached to the wishing well that said: “Player 23 Sharks”, my son’s date of birth and death were on it.
The church records of that year would have given them the contact details of myself or my daughter.
They could also have put it in the notices.
No, they did nothing except throw it away, mementos and all.
So this leads me to conclude that Holy ground can be desiccated even in the sanctuary of church grounds, and all one gets in response to this is: “We are ever so sorry!”
Why did no one place the broken pieces into a cardboard box or black bag?
I could, at least, have tried to reconstruct something from what was left.
Another reason I have written this letter is to inform our community that, if you have mementos of your loved ones in the remembrance garden of Northfield Methodist Church, please be advised that they may have been thrown away.
I can find no further words to express the deep desolation and sadness I feel.
Editor’s note: The Rev John van de Laar, senior minister at the Northfield Methodist Church, replies: “I met with the person concerned on February 11, and apologised to her in person for the pain and anguish that she has experienced as a result of the cleaning up process of our Remembrance Garden.
”We have also asked her to consider ways that we can help to restore a sense of sacredness to that part of the garden for her.
Northfield Methodist Church initiated this clean-up after a number of people who had visited the garden had complained that it was in need of some tender loving care after the December holidays, when some of our maintenance staff had been on leave.
”As far as I am aware the wishing well in question disintegrated when an attempt was made to move it as part of the clean-up process.
”The roof-like top of the well was retained, and we have given that to your reader.
”The office staff have informed me that they did search through our records, but that the contact details of your reader could not be tracked down.
”We have received some very grateful responses from other visitors to the garden, who feel that the Garden of Remembrance now feels, once again, like a sacred space to them.
”We deeply regret that this was not the experience of your reader, and we hope that she will allow us to work with her to restore that sense of sacredness for her as well.”
