Forever Cherished — A Sculpture for the Children's Garden of Remembrance

Some commissions arrive as more than just a brief. When I was first approached to create a sculpture for the John Paul II Centre for Life in Christchurch, I was invited in for an interview — not just to discuss the work, but so they could get a sense of who I was as a person. It's the kind of meeting where you either connect or you don't. We connected straight away.

The centre supports families navigating some of life's most devastating losses — the death of a child through miscarriage, stillbirth, or cot death. The sculpture was to sit at the heart of their Children's Garden of Remembrance: a quiet, enclosed space where grieving families could come to remember.

Getting the design right took time. We worked closely together through several design concepts, and at one point the sculpture featured two hands. Eventually we arrived at something simpler and more powerful — a single large hand, gently cradling a sleeping baby. The hand of God. The child at peace. It felt right.

The carving itself began with the design drawn directly onto a large block of Oamaru stone — the image mapped out in pencil before a single chip of stone was removed. Then came the long, physical work of bringing the form out of the block, refining the baby's face, the soft folds of cloth, the curve of the hand beneath.

When it came time to deliver the sculpture in December 2012, we discovered the forklift could only get it as far as the garden gate — the garden itself was too narrow for the machine to enter. So we did what stonemasons have done for thousands of years. We laid down wooden dowels as rollers, and a team from the centre gathered around. Together, slowly and carefully, they rolled the sculpture along its rollers and guided it into position. It was one of those moments that felt entirely fitting — the community that would care for this piece helping to bring it home.

Carved into the base are the words: Forever cherished... A reminder, in stone, that every life — however brief — is forever cherished.