"FINALLY there is somewhere concrete to come to be still and remember, where before there seemed to be nothing and people felt lost with their own grief".
Those were the words of Royal Derby Hospital chaplain the Rev Marise Hargreaves at the opening of the Derby Sands Baby Memorial Garden on Sunday.
About 250 people attended the emotional event at Markeaton Crematorium, including Derbyshire's Charles Hanson, who officially opened the garden.
The celebrity auctioneer's son Tommy was stillborn in 2012.
After yesterday's ceremony, he said he and his wife Rebecca would have used the garden had it existed before.
It features a sculpture, designed and created by artist Rachel Carter, of a butterfly coming out of its cocoon.
On it are petals featuring the names of babies that have died during pregnancy, birth, or in the months after birth, dating back to 1946.
Mr Hanson said: "It's something that has left so many mothers feeling so hollow over so many years and there's now somewhere really quite peaceful to come and remember and, perhaps as important, have the companionship with other mothers who have been left bereft in the same way.
"We would have come here had this existed before. The nearest one was previously at the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas."
The opening ceremony saw eight candles lit in memory of the babies – one for pre-1950s children , then for 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and from 2010s into the future.
Poems were read, a blessing given and 50 butterflies were released.
Derby Sands, the city's stillbirth and neonatal death charity, has been fund-raising over the past four years to reach the £40,000 needed for the garden.
Chairman of the group, Lou Evans, had the idea for the memorial garden back in 2010.
In 2009, her second child, Lauren, was stillborn at 36 weeks.
In her opening speech she said: "In particular I wanted people who had lost their babies long ago to have the opportunity to acknowledge and remember their babies.
"Once I shared my idea with Derby Sands and other bereaved parents there was no looking back.
"It's a dream that has become a reality due to the hard work, patience and skills of so many different people."
There are currently 175 children remembered by 170 petals on the sculpture, made of 10,000ft of wound caine, as twins are recognised on the same ones.
Every six months more will be added with people able to apply via the Derby Sands website.
POEM READ IN MEMORY
FORMER chair of Derby Sands, Kate Stanton, read a poem at yesterday's opening ceremony, called Little Snowdrop:
The world may never notice if a Snowdrop doesn't bloom,
Or even pause to wonder if the petals fall too soon.
But every life that ever forms or even comes to be,
Touches the world in some small way for all eternity,
The little one we longed for was swiftly here and gone,
But the love that was then planted is a light that still shines on,
And though our arms are empty our hearts know what to do,
Every beating of our hearts says that we love you.
The author is unknown.
