Losing a loved one is horrible.
Losing a spouse that you have shared a life with for years is one of the worst things a person can go through in life. Things aren’t ever the same again and it’s hard to carry on when you have lost the person you planned on sharing the rest of your life with.
Janet and Winston Howes had a great life.
They were happily married, had a healthy son, and a had beautiful home. It seemed like everything was going great for them. Then, when Janet was just 50 years old, she passed away from heart failure. It was a horrible tragedy, and Winston wasn’t sure that he could go on without his beloved wife.
He and his son tried their best to move on, but they just didn’t know what to do without Janet. A few months after her death, Winston got an idea. He felt that if he could find a way to make his wife’s memory live on, he might be able to move on a little easier.
He knew just what he wanted to do for her.
He decided to make something beautiful in her honor and something he and his son could go to and think of Janet. He wanted it to last forever, and he wanted it to be amazing.
So, he worked in secret to create a tribute.
Nobody could see how spectacular his tribute was until someone in a hot air balloon happened to fly over it. Pilot Andy Collett happened to look down while in his balloon one day and saw a heart shape in the field. It was Winston’s artwork.
Winston had worked hard to shape and prune a forest to be in the perfect shape of a heart.
It was near the meadow his wife had loved to walk in with him. Of course, the heart could only be seen from the air. He hoped Janet could see it, and he and his son knew what it meant to them, even if they couldn’t see it themselves.
The pilot talked about the amazing sight, saying:
“I have my own balloon and am quite a regular flyer, but this was the most amazing sight I have ever seen from the sky. It was a perfect heart hidden away from view – you would not know it was there.
“You can just imagine the love story.”
Winston is glad that other people can see it and enjoy it.
He hopes that Janet is happy with it. He said:
“I thought it was a great idea – it was a flash of inspiration – and I planted several thousand oak trees. Once it was completed we put a seat in the field, overlooking the hill near where she used to live. We planted large oak trees around the edge of the heart then decided to put a hedge around it too. The heart points towards Wotton Hill, where Janet is from. We plant daffodils in the middle that come up in the spring – it looks great. I go out there from time to time and sit in the seat I created.”
It’s definitely a labor of love, and as much as he enjoyed working on it, he is even happier to know that his wife’s memory is living on and his story is being shared with others.
He created something that is truly amazing that is helping him and his son deal with their grief.
Whenever they feel sad and want to think about Janet, they go to the forest, and they know she is looking down on them. It has helped them both learned to deal with her death in a positive way and it’s something Winston’s son can share with his own children someday. When he talks about his mother, he can take them there and show them her favorite spot and the amazing tribute his father made for her.
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