I Will Honour You

There’s a poem called ‘To Honour You’ about how we honour those that have died, quite simply by getting up every day, and remembering them. For me though, that isn’t enough. I need something else, something more permanent and meaningful. When I’m dead and gone, something has to remain that has Evie’s name all over it; something lasting and of value. Evie believed in a Roman writing that as long as people said your name, then you aren’t really dead. Evie’s Gift will, all being well, continue to help the parents of critically-ill children, and EvieOwl will continue to make people smile when they see it at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. Her book ‘Written by the Stars’ will be read to children, and we will continue to find other ways to preserve her memory - to honour her.

But that’s not enough. If Evie were still alive, what would she be doing now? What would be important to her? What would she seek to change? That in turn leads neatly into how we can achieve those things in her name to honour her memory. So, having given it some thought, I want to make some changes in my life, to reflect the kindness that Evie showed others, to try and create a life that she would have nagged me to create. Maybe some of it would have been a bit faddish, but knowing her, she wouldn’t have started something unless she believed in it.

So ….. what about a plant-based diet? Errrr …. No! I think I can safely say that vegetarianism would never have been something that she would have considered unless you could still have steak or bacon sandwiches.

But there are other causes that she would have got involved with. We now have a large number of bird feeders in the garden with nuts, seeds, fat balls and the like. We’ve just put up another one with 4 more feeders on it, along with 2 more birdbaths. We buy bird seed 20kg at a time! We’ve also created a number of small piles of logs for bugs and the like to overwinter in.

Like all of you, we recycle our rubbish, but now we are more careful and recycle everything that we can, including the tea bag contents that used to go in the bin. Now they go into our compost bin. Evie would have inherited the world from us, so it seems fitting that we do our bit to reduce the damage that our generation is doing to it.

Covid-19 has forced us to shop local. Buying local meat, fruit and vegetables not only reduces airmiles but also supports local businesses, and we eat seasonally. No more buying mangetout all year round. Tesco won’t miss my £30 a week, but it might just make a difference to the local farmer. Not only that, but it tastes better and there’s less waste because it doesn’t go off as quickly. Our butcher knows which cow we have just bought a part of. I think that she’d approve! Is it a bit more expensive? Sometimes, but what the hell else am I going to spend the money on?

Every year we plant a flowering cherry tree on her birthday, but we have also planted two other small saplings and will aim to do more as and when we can. If we can reduce CO2 in the atmosphere and provide a habitat for more birds then that has to be good.

I’ve been upcycling corks for some time now, making bird boxes or Christmas decorations, all to give them a new lease of life rather than go to landfill.

Finally, I’m working on a grand plan. To buy a few acres of woodland and turn it into something wonderful for wildlife. I want to plant it with English tree varieties, and if we can manage it, make it a sculpture garden filled with pieces that reflect the wonderful person that she was. The first piece is on order and will be with us in the Spring; a young girl cuddling a polar bear.

Will Evie approve? I don’t know of course, but I would like to think so. The point is to honour her, then preserve her memory and do something to make a difference too. Evie may be gone, but her influence hasn’t.