Funeral directors provides ‘Pots of Love’ for the bereaved in Slough

A funeral directors is appealing to local people in Slough for spare plant pots and children’s creative drawings to support people who have lost loved ones during the Covid-19 pandemic.

E Sargeant and Son Funeral Directors has joined Slough Mutual Aid to turn donations into cards and flowerpots and deliver them to the bereaved during these difficult times.

Mark Clements, south regional support manager for Funeral Partners, said: “No one should feel alone in this outbreak, so we want to show those who have recently lost loved ones that Slough is thinking of them by delivering these cards and pots of love to their door.”

Children aged 14 and under are being asked to create the drawings and include things “that will make people smile” such as rainbows, hearts or flowers, as well as the words ‘Thinking of you’. There will be special prizes for the winning drawings.

The teams will turn the garden supplies donated to them by the community into ‘pots of love’, which E Sargeant and Son will deliver to doorsteps with the printed cards.

Julie Siddiqi, community organiser at Slough Mutual Aid, said: “It is great to be working with Mark and the team at E Sargeant. They are a respected local business and they know how to work sensitively with families going through difficult times.

“It has been so much harder for families to properly grieve a loved one because of the pandemic and this feels like one way we can let them know that as a community in Slough, we are thinking of them.”

Clements and Siddiqi came up with the idea for Pots of Love while they were delivering leaflets around Slough offering local support to those who need it.

He said: “From speaking with Julie while I was volunteering, I learned that me being from E Sargeant and Son Funeral Directors inspired her to think about people who are not only trying to deal with the coronavirus situation but who had the additional upset of bereavement.”