In Loving Memory

Believe it or not there are over 9000 benches in New York's Central Park. At least 2000 of these have been "adopted"- ie have been bought for between 7,500 and 25,000 dollars each, "in memory" of a loved one. For your payment, you get a bog standard bench (above) or a handmade rustic top-of-the-range model and a small ,neat inscription plate, upon which you can write a short "in memory of" phrase and dedication.
Chris and I loved walking around the tree lined boulevards, reading the moving,pithy and varied inscriptions. I remember many of the more recent dedications were tributes from 9/11, which added a certain poignancy to the whole experience.

I got to thinking of all this when I was walking the dogs up the Gop this afternoon. The weather was extremely blustery and rather cold, but the view from the top of the hill was, as usual lovely and well worth the battle.

A bench has been recently erected at the most spectacular viewing position facing West towards the Clwydian Hills and the Irish Sea in memory of a local man.I have not heard of.

The time and obvious effort it must have taken the family and friends of this chap to organise and carry out this undertaking would have been considerable, and so I thought it reasonable that they must of loved Craig Thomas very much.
As I walked away, I remembered one of the inscriptions from a particular bench in the park....

"In memory of Minnie, Dora and Stella-----the ladies that liked to lunch...and to talk...."....funny what you remember isn't it?