Story Behind George’s Bench
Firstly we would like to thank our family and friends for contributing towards the cost of this bench. It has been a long three year journey to get this installed but we hope that everyone in the community can enjoy it and for people that knew George can feel a connection to him.
We are very grateful and delighted to have this bench designed and made by Andy Burgess the wood sculpture who stood by us during this long process. It truly is a unique and beautiful work of art and you can find out more about Andy and his work on his Instagram page here.
We wanted a bench that would have George’s personality and to display his creativity and humour. From the minute George could hold a crayon/pencil he was captivated by creating and designing. Such an active toddler but he could create patterns before he could draw or write for hours.
We wanted this bench originally to be installed in John Leigh Park a park George loved and had lots of happy times in but sadly they rejected it and we settled for what is now called Altrincham Community Orchard. The official name is St George’s Green and as George went to St George’s when he was younger and the Beavers/Cubs at St George’s just behind Georges Bench. George went to Altrincham CofE School so this land has good connections with George and his friends over the years.
When George was 6 we adopted Toki our ginger tom cat. From this moment on Toki became Super Toki Cat and featured in hundreds of George’s drawings including his school books to the frustration of his teachers and the amusement of his parents!
We had to include Toki in the bench as he was an important part of George’s imagination and this below is the original drawing by George and we decided to show the head and paws with the tail peeping out of the back of the bench. Toki has a cheeky expression on his face as he has dropped his ball of wool.
The horse shoe symbol is recognising one of George’s persona’s when he was younger he had an online presence of George The Horse and he made some videos skits on this.
We could not have this bench without having a banana on it as again George was known to a lot of his friends as cheekybananaboy.
Please walk around this side of the bench and you may find a diamond. Why a diamond? George like most lads was into gaming from an early age and when he was younger it was Minecraft. So much so that he made a parody/send up rap with his friends which is on soundcloud called My Name Is Steve and features a line my number is Diamonds. This is symbol of George’s many talents and for his creative music friends a tie into that time and recognising George’s love of rap and his creativity in writing rap lyrics.
The right hand side of the bench we wanted to tie into the orchard and recognise this beautiful community project where this bench will sit among 38 fruit trees and be a focal point for people to ponder and sit within nature.
We have an pear and apple but they could not be ordinary – they needed to have George’s creativity. We gave them each a character face from George’s drawing. The pear has the face from George’s poster he designed for his year 6 school party that was used as the flyer. The apple has the face from George’s Cupcake. If you look at the apple you will see a cheeky worm saying hello.
George had a love of pigeons and during his minecraft time he called all pigeons Steve! He even drew himself riding a pigeon so we wanted that part of his personality in the bench. Hence the bird feet prints leading up a path to a little door of imagination.
The heart from one of George’s drawings saying I Love Art contains George’s signature. He used this on many of his drawings like a logo and it symbolises the love we have and will always have for George who we miss dearly. George had such creativity, imagination and talent and who should and would have made a life around his creative talents and had aspirations of producing films and music.
At the back of this side of the bench you will find vine leaves a lovely idea from one of his friends. We see this as a tie into nature and as way of seeing George forever intertwined in our lives and through our love of him it will help us grow and show compassion, understanding and care to everyone we meet. We hope you can share a little of his beautiful unique spirit to keep the vine producing more leaves and growth and spreading as nature does to more and more people.
George
Our beautiful son through the years and his love of art:
You can find out more of George here:
https://everloved.com/life-of/george-edwards/obituary/