Heart on a bench

There used to be a house on this site, until it was demolished 18 years ago, leaving a forlorn gap in a row of Cotswold stone dwellings. Permission was sought to build several more houses on the site, but after several years this lapsed, and the ugly space remained, growing weedy and unkempt.

In recent years, a pocket-sized- garden has been created on part of the land, and it was this that I went to investigate this morning, lured by the primary coloured posts that separate it from Nelson Street. Fuschias bloomed in their delicate splendour, flags and bunting waved languidly in the heat, but my attention was caught by this hand made poster attached to a bench adjoining the stone wall. Clearly the work of a child, it had been tied on with a lot of care, and wool.

Who is, or was, Jackie? Looking at this artwork, I have some inklings, but can only know for almost-certain that somebody loved her, and misses her.