Face masks sold to raise funds for stillborn babies memorial garden
Fundraising has begun to help create a cemetery memorial garden for grieving parents of stillborn babies.
Gelda Timm is making face masks to sell in the community, helped by fellow members of the Friends of Lye and Wollescote Cemetery, which is in Cemetery Road, with proceeds going towards the project.
Gelda said the idea for the face masks came about after she saw a couple with balloons standing at a spot in the cemetery.
She said: “I went over to speak to them and found out they had had a stillborn baby called Isabella 42 years ago and, in those days, they had no choice of where they were buried.
"They knew it was in Lye, but they weren’t sure where, so we helped them to locate where Isabella was.
"I did some extra research on it and found there were around 600 babies buried here, so we decided to fundraise for a memorial garden for them.”
The 74-year-old from Quarry Bank has created more than 100 masks so far, with fellow members of the group also creating masks of their own.
She said: “I didn’t want to make a profit out of something as horrible as Covid, so I decided to donate what I had been given to the memorial garden.
To donate to the fund, go to tflwc.org.uk/index.php
