The unique seat made of galvanised iron was donated by Robyn West, whose late husband Ian died of cancer six years ago after spending his final days at the Berkhamsted-based Hospice.
“Ian used to delight in making up stories at bedtime for our daughter Amy when she was little,” explains Robyn, from St Albans.
“They would always be about Amy, and Ian would use them to help her deal with friendship or other issues she’d experienced during the day, whether it was to make her laugh or to help her go to sleep with a happier heart.”
After Ian died, Robyn spoke to Hospice Director Dr Ros Taylor about how she might repay the hospice for its support and when Ros shared her vision of a storytelling area in the woodland garden, Robyn was inspired.
“A Storyteller’s Chair seemed the perfect tribute to Ian and a wonderful way of using storytelling to communicate with children,” she explains.
“The reality of serious illness and dying is tough to deal with but because it’s a natural part of the cycle of life, I firmly believe that it’s important to talk about it.
“To lose someone we love is hard. Talking about it can make it less painful but sometimes talk is hard too – which is where stories come in, to communicate and engage where talk cannot.
The hospice hopes the chair’s arrival will mark the start of many storytelling events, which will enhance its children’s support services and enable it to extend its reach into the local community to raise awareness – particularly in schools – about what it does.
In the future, there are plans for the chair to be a focus for poetry and musical events for adults too.
Dr Ros Taylor said: “Thanks to Robyn’s generosity, inspiration and time – and the tireless help of our volunteer gardeners – we’ve been able to create a special, secluded, magical place where we can use storytelling to celebrate life and demystify death. It’s also a perfect space for quiet, therapeutic reflection. The chair is a work of art!”
In a project which has taken three years from inception, Robyn commissioned famous Kew blacksmith Shelley Thomas to design and make the ice-blue painted chair.
The installation was marked in a special opening ceremony in the hospice’s magical woodland garden which saw Berkhamsted children’s author, award-winning animator and scriptwriter for children’s TV, Allan Plenderleith, entertain 20 pre-school children from Sunhill Montessori Nursery.
He sat in the chair to present a special inaugural reading from ‘Berk, Ham and Ted in the Story Chair’, written by Allan especially for the occasion and conceived by his son Max, 8, a pupil at Westfield School.
The story, as the name suggests, is set in Berkhamsted and its heroes are Berk the monkey, Ham the pig, and Ted the teddy bear, who reside in The Rocket – otherwise known as the Water Tower!
When the book is published, Allan, author of best-selling children’s classics The Smelly Sprout and ‘The Silly Satsuma’, has generously pledged to donate all profits to the hospice, which provides total care for people living with life-limiting illness in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
He said: “I’m thrilled and honoured to have been asked to read the first story in this magical setting. It’s a fantastically whimsical and unusual idea, which I hope lots of children will be able to experience and enjoy.”
To fins out more about the Hospice of St Francis, visit the website.
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