These are some of the dedications that have been made to Darren over the years. There are the ones we made as a family, others we did through The Compassionate Friends, Parents of Suicide and  Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide.

Darren’s Scout Group had a Rowan (Mountain Ash) tree planted and dedicated to Darren at the local Scout camp site, but there is no plaque there.

We used to release balloons on Darren’s birthday (or Birth Date as we say on the POS site) and anniversaries (or Angelversaries).
 
Soon after we joined The Compassionate Friends we had chance to do a quilt square for a National Quilt, Darren’s Nan did the square for us. On various weekend Retreats or Gatherings we decorated candle jars and candle bags to be used as part of the weekend candle lighting service. On other weekends we had rocks decorated with our children’s names. At monthly meetings members could bring a photograph of their child and put on show during the evening. There was normally a tea-light lit by them. We also organised an annual Candle Lighting Service in Watford.

With Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide, we used to go away for a “pampering” weekend once a year and one they had a “Top Hats and Tiaras” theme. They wanted people to wear Top Hats and Tiaras for the Saturday evening dinner. At first I was very reluctant to take part but then I got to thinking of how could I incorporate Darren into this theme and I came up with “making a top hat out of card and colouring it Orange (Darren’s favourite colour) and decorate it with photos and badges to do with Darren and our journey since 1998”. At the group meetings we facilitated we also invited attendees to bring a photograph of their loved one and put them on show during the evening with a tea-
light lit next to them. Through the church hall where we held our monthly meetings we got involved in a Christmas Tree Festival where we decorated a small, plain tree, with stars cut out of card and members wrote the names of their loved ones on. This led us to be invited to put the tree in a local funeral director’s office over the Christmas period. We did this for 16 years and from one office it led to us putting a tree in six different offices in various locations in the area.

All these “events” we organised were done in Darren’s memory.

Through Parents of Suicide, we made a quilt square with Darren’s name on for when they made one to present to Karyl, the founder of POS. Later on POS made more quilts and we did a square for Darren for that project. Karyl and her husband, Ronnie, lived in Pavo, Georgia, when we first knew them and they had 2 Christmas trees permanently on display with the names and photos of the children of members of POS, so Darren was included in that. To help with accommodation for meals and meetings when they held Retreats Ronnie and Karyl had a picnic pavilion built in their grounds, they named it the Butterfly Pavilion. They marked off sections of the rafters for people to write dedications to their children, Lynda wrote Darren’s. Ronnie & Karyl invited parents to write on stepping stones or flag stones to be put on display around the Butterfly Pavilion. When they moved to Columbia, Tennessee, they took the rafters and stones with them and had them incorporated into a new Butterfly Pavilion.
When we visited POS friends, Patty & Logan, in Evansville, Indiana, they took us to a Garden of Remembrance where children memories were honoured, they had a brick for their son. We had one for Darren added. Two POS friends had t-shirts done with  names on. A POS member named Subette did an abseil carrying sunflowers with Darren’s and other children’s name written on the petals. She then placed them in the River Thames to float down the river. Another one, Smita, did several pieces of artwork incorporating Darren.
 
I have sub-divided this page into tributes from each of the organisations mentioned. I have included as many photographs as I can on these pages. On the other pages when you are viewing them on a desktop or laptop if you hover the cursor over the headstones the memorial photo will appear, this feature isn’t available on a SmartPhone or Tablet, it just shows the photograph in the “headstone frame”.
I know that some POS members included our children’s names on shirts or boards when they took part in various fund-raising overnight walks or other events, if you have any photos that includes Darren’s name or photograph I would appreciate it if you could send me a copy on bob.lyn.pos@btinternet.com (I know you probably did when you did it but my filing system doesn’t exist and I can’t find them at the moment).