Currently in the final stages of development, B&M Care’s Memorial Garden is a landscaped environment that will offer a reflective space to contemplate and reflect on the impact of the pandemic.

Situated adjacent to Ashlyns Care Home and B&M Care sister brand Fledglings Nursery on Berkhamsted’s Ashlyns Hall Estate, the garden will be open to staff and relatives from any B&M Care Home.

When completed, the garden will offer an abundance of ornamental decoration and thematic bloom, for example a bed of ‘memory roses’, as well as a reflection room that will house a ‘Book of Remembrance’ where visitors can pay tribute to their loved ones.

The Memorial Garden was born out of B&M Care’s Memory Capsule Relay. Running until the beginning of September, the relay is currently observing a trunk being transported from one home to another, including the group’s Head Office in Hemel Hempstead, to collect a historic cache of items and information to later form part of a pandemic time capsule which will be buried at the Memorial Garden.

The aim of the time capsule is to primarily communicate the essence of living through a global pandemic to a future generation. Items have so far included: arts and crafts, handwritten memoirs, newspaper cuttings, memorabilia, and of course, PPE, such as face masks and a Covid-19 PCR Test.

Steps To Reconnect

B&M Care’s Memorial Garden, Memory Capsule Relay and group-wide Walk For Wellbeing challenge form part of a wider initiative, titled Steps To Reconnect. With an aim of tentatively reconnecting our family network of care homes, Steps To Reconnect looks at offsetting the “year like no other” with the above challenge and relay to diminish distance and unite the group as a whole – once again!