Garden jungle... to garden of peace

Michael, who would have celebrated his 50th birthday yesterday

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SGT Michael Pavitt liked nothing better than tending his garden and sitting there with his wife and children.

But when his widow Andrea moved into a new home in Sherwood Way, High Crompton, she was out of her depth in the garden, which became overgrown and weed-ridden.

So the Forces Support Charity sent two builders along to help.

They ripped out the overgrown vegetation, erected fences, laid paving, created a sitting area and made a memorial garden to her late husband.

Now Andrea and the couple’s three children, Lewis (19), Leonie (17) and Charly (12) are looking forward to spending time there and remembering the good times they had with Mike, affectionately known as Pav, who died from cancer three years ago.

Thanking the charity, Andrea said: “Everything was so overgrown and I’m just not a gardener, my husband always did the garden. But what has been done is just wonderful.

“We go to his grave, but graveyards can be such solemn places. Now if they want to put flowers down for their dad they can do that in the garden.”

Bill McCance from the Forces Support Charity, said: “Bereavement goes on for so long even small jobs can become far too much to deal with mentally or to cope with.”