An angel to remember them

Relatives who arranged funerals through Darwen Funeral Service, in Blackburn Road, during 2004 have each been sent a small gold angel and a personal letter asking them if they want to dedicate the angel to their loved one.

The angel, which is inscribed with the words "With love we remember", has a section left blank for each person to include the name of the person they want to remember. The small angels will then be hung on a huge Christmas tree in the reception of the funeral firm for people to look at.

Joint-owner of the business Sheila Lysiuk said the service was free and available to anyone who had arranged a funeral through them.

She said: "Only people we have dealt within the last 12 months have been sent the letter but anyone from previous years can still pop in and hang their own memorial. We have tried this out for a couple of years but it became so successful last Christmas that we had to buy a big tree, which is lit up in one of our main windows.

"We decided to do it so that people knew we hadn't forgotten about them. At Christmas it is really difficult for people who have lost someone very dear to them. People are running round buying presents and we wanted them to know we were thinking of them. People do seem to appreciate it. I think we all like to think we have a guardian angel watching over us so we thought the angel was a nice idea."

Dorothy Forlan, of Marton Walk, recently arranged a funeral for her father.

She said: "The people at Darwen Funeral Service have been really good and we can't fault them. When I received the little angel and was told I could dedicate it to a loved one, I was really touched and thought it was a lovely idea.

"There are places you can do things in memory of relatives but you usually have to pay. They have done this for selfless reasons and it is not costing us anything.

"It's nice to be able to do something in memory of my dad especially at Christmas."