Nine-year-old girl’s ‘postbox to heaven’ installed at crematorium to send letters to dead loved ones
A nine-year-old girl’s “mailbox to heaven” is installed in the crematorium so that people can send letters to deceased loved ones
- Matilda Handy, nine, wanted to send letters to her late grandparents
- The post box was then installed at Gedling Crematorium in Nottinghamshire
- Matilda said that writing to loved ones helped her grieve and express feelings
A crematorium has installed a “mailbox to heaven” designed to encourage people to write to loved ones who have died after a grieving nine-year-old girl suggested the idea.
Matilda Handy wanted to send letters to her grandparents, who are both deceased.
The mailbox was subsequently installed at Gedling Crematorium in Nottinghamshire in December and has already received nearly 100 “letters to heaven”, ITV Central reported.
Nine-year-old Matilda and her mother hope the mailbox will become a permanent feature of the crematorium so grieving people can continue to reach their loved ones.
A crematorium has installed a “mailbox to heaven” where people can send letters to loved ones who have died after a grieving nine-year-old girl suggested the idea
Matilda Handy, nine, came up with the idea while writing letters to her late grandparents
Speaking to ITV Central, Matilda said writing letters to her grandparents has helped her grieve and allowed her to express feelings in new ways.
“It was very nice because I’m very upset and it’s just a very nice way to express my feelings and send them a letter and tell them how much I love them,” she said.
The response from the local community to the special post box has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Matilda’s mother Leanne, with many reaching out to the couple to ask if they could use the post box as well.
The mailbox is accompanied by a sign that invites you to use the mailbox at any time to write to deceased relatives
Speaking of the mailbox, Matilda said, “It was very nice because I’m very upset and it’s just a very nice way of expressing my feelings.”
Gedling Crematorium Site Manager Giulia McDonough said: “Like all Westerleigh Group sites, we aim to have a very positive presence in our local communities and I am delighted that the Letters to Heaven mailbox is inspiring to the imagination seems to have – and interest – many people.’
They added that on December 12, the crematorium posted about the box on Facebook and showed a picture of it in use, prompting more than 16,000 people to see the message and nearly 1,000 to like it within days.
The crematorium stressed that the box is serviced by them and not Royal Mail, meaning no postage is required.
