Dalbeattie residents are being invited to attend the opening and dedication of a Covid memorial stone next Saturday.
The event, which has been arranged by Dalbeattie and District Lions Club, will take place in Colliston Park on November 26 at 2pm.
Rev Fiona Wilson of the town’s parish church will officiate at the simple ceremony of contemplation.
The memorial comprises sections of polished granite in the shape of two half moons.
Lions club president Lynda Burns said: “It’s for people in the town and the villages round about and an acknowledgement that it has been a difficult time for many.
“They may have a family member of friend that might have died from Covid not just round about here but in other parts of the country or around the world.”
The area around the memorial was once an attractive bed of granite blocks which had become overgrown.
The Lions got permission from the council to tidy up the site and place the sculpted stones there.
Lynda said: “The council came beforehand with a little digger and managed to move the granite out. Then Lions members went down with the volunteer community gardener Margaret Copp to dig the ground and make a clear bed.
“We arranged for the local landscape gardener Creative Gardens to put cobbles in to make an edge then asked stonemason Edward Layden in Dumfries to make the stone.
“It’s an organic looking piece which is what we wanted because we did not want the place looking like a cemetery.
“It’s a public park and the stone is beside the main path up the middle.
“People passing will be able to see it and have a moment of reflection as they are walking past.”
Plans are in place to install a bench across the path from the memorial.
Lynda added: “Everyone did a great job.
“We’d also like to thanks Jas P Wilson of Dalbeattie for moving a great big piece of granite that was in the way. The council is donating more bedding plants next spring which Margaret will plant around the stone.”
The simple inscription reads: “To those lost to the Pandemic Covid-19 2020-2022.
“A time to embrace and with each flower planted remember a face.”
