Mum sets up letterbox to help with Christmas grief

A woman facing her first Christmas without her mum has put a letterbox on her front gate for neighbours to post messages to lost loved ones over the festive period.

Amy Rogerson, from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, said she hoped writing and sending the letters would help people deal with their grief.

The 39-year-old said she came up with the idea after losing her mum Julie in the summer, her dad John in 2024 and her sister Chrissy in 2020.

She said Christmas was a particularly sad time of year for her and her family because her parents had loved it so much.

"They used to go over the top," she said. "They made the house like Santa's grotto.

"I'd get random phone calls at two or three o'clock in the morning, when they'd had their sherry, singing 'Oh Christmas Tree' down the phone."

In late November, she was thinking about the festive season and said it hit her for the first time that her mum was really gone.

"I was thinking, we won't be able to do the sing-songs and the little funny phone calls any more," she added.

"I wished I could call them. I thought, I've got to do something.

"If I can't phone, I can post a letter."

She set up the box outside her home in Bailey Crescent at the start of December and has had about five messages so far.

One reads: "Dear Mum and Dad, I really wish you were here, it's that time of year where you made it so magical for us all…

"I've got a lot to tell you, but we can have a catch up when we meet again."

Another is a card decorated with a robin from a grandson saying, "Thinking of you at Christmas".

She plans to leave the letterbox up until the end of January, then take the messages and put them in a time capsule at the bottom of the garden.

For those who have left their address, she'll send them a message back, and she's leaving any marked private unread.

She's planning on replacing the wooden box, which is decorated with robins, bows and tinsel, with a permanent metal one if the idea takes off.

Post boxes where you can drop off messages for loved ones can be found across the country, including at crematoria, and are typically called "letters to heaven".

Miss Rogerson said she was unaware of these when she started but has now used one herself and is trying to get more installed.

She said: "I want to help others with their grief because I know I'm suffering with my own quite a lot.

"Reading the messages, I'm glad because it shows my pain is helping others."

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