“THE SPIRIT OF HOPE – Release, Receive” 2002

This sculpture forms a focal orientation point linking an existing woodland to a new acreage that is gradually being planted with trees as the ‘Millennium Wood’ in Staffordshire.  The earlier site appears to be natural woodland, but both areas are part of the grounds of Bretby Crematorium, where each tree has been planted to mark the position of a person’s funerary ashes.

This life-size bronze bust of a woman has her hands raised in a gesture to both release and receive, representing the process of mourning.  These two words are carved on either side of the supporting pillar and a stainless steel ring passes through the stone, encircling the sculpture and representing the continual process of renewal in the eternal cycle of life and death. The Crematorium building was always brimming with flowers but when walking through the older wood Rose also came across the occasional small bunch of flowers laid amongst the tree roots and she designed the figure so that flowers could also be placed in its hands. The sculpture was commissioned by East Staffordshire Borough Council and blessed in a beautiful open-air service attended by several hundred people in August 2001, after which, in a spontaneous act, a small child placed a flower in each bronze hand. This work had a particularly personal significance for Rose as her mother had died in 1989 and her husband in 1991.