D-Day 75 Garden - Chelsea
 

I had the good fortune to go to the Chelsea Flower Show this year - and saw close up the incredibly emotive D-Day 75 Garden - which has now been shipped to Normandy.
https://www.lovania.co.uk/sea-thrift...-chelsea-2019/

As I was standing at the barrier there was a lady handing out leaflets explaining the meaning of the garden - and the symbolism behind it. If you haven't seen it, then click on the link. The central figure in the garden is a life size statue of D Day veteran Bill Pendall MM carved from a single piece of stone. The statue looks across at an ethereal image of himself as a 22 year old, constructed from metal washers. The young figure pauses before rushing up the beachead with fellow comrades struggling to get ashore behind him.
The lady giving out the leaflets explained that she was Bill's daughter and that Bill had sadly passed away last Christmas and had never seen the piece finished. - There is only one type of flower in the garden - "Sea Thrift" - which would have been on the south coast of England as they left and on the beaches of Normandy when they landed. What was not clear on the various depictions of the Garden during the Chelsea flower show was that amongst the thousands of Sea thrift plants that had been planted - there were some ceramic "sea thrift plants" to augment the natural ones. I said to the lady have you considered selling them like the "Tower Poppies" - to which she replied that they'd had quite a few requests but had not got any plans to something similar - then she said "would you like one?" - So for a small donation to the Royal British Legion - I am the proud owner of a small part of the Garden. Tim

Thanks for sharing this - very evocative. You have a great memento of a very historic day.

The memorial garden and Ms Mullen should be featuring on BBC1 shortly during "D-Day: Remembering the Fallen", currently being shown.