Covid tiles ‘an expression of grief and healing’

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The individual tributes will be incorporated into a permanent ceramic memorial bench which is set to be installed in Hanley's Bethesda Gardens in 2027.

Lynn Jones MBE campaigned for a memorial following the death of her husband Gareth Jones, in 2021, and described the process of tile making as "in itself an expression of grief and healing."

The first creative session was at Spode Works in Stoke, which Jones said was a wonderful location for it "because it unites the grief and the local character of Stoke-on-Trent, which is our ceramics industry."

Fifty-five families have already signed up to the project, and Jones hopes many more will follow.

"Over a thousand people died of Covid in this area," she said, adding that the aim was to bring together a community which went through trauma.

Community artist Philip Hardaker is overseeing the tile-making sessions and creating the memorial bench, describing it as a very emotional project.

"Once the seat is finished, people can go and meet on the seat and meet other people in similar circumstances and relate their stories."

It was about creating a healing space, he explained.

Lena Vincent's partner Patrick McManus was a deputy ward manager at County Hospital, Stafford, working in elderly care.

The 60-year-old, who had worked in the health service for 40 years, died in 2020 after contracting coronavirus.

It was "huge" to have recognition for loved ones, said Vincent.

"This is to say, we still remember you… it's going to be not just a Covid bench, but a loving bench, and it's going to be for us, and for them."

Carole Colcough's father Roy Joynson, who was 89, died at Christmas 2020.

Being able to create a tile in his name to form part of a permanent Covid memorial meant "a great lot," she said.

"It's keeping his memory alive, it really is…members of our family, plus other people can go, and he becomes that person again, he steps out of that tile."

The project has secured £20,000 from the government's Pride in Place impact fund, and needs to be completed and installed by 31 March 2027.

"Having seen the first tile laid down, it was quite emotional," said Stoke-on-Trent Central Labour MP Gareth Snell, who has backed the campaign.

"It's bringing together all the pieces that now means we are definitely going to have something special and real in the city to commerorate all those people who lost their lives during Covid."

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