We had not seen the type of bench that the Zoo got for us, but it was made of sustainable materials and sourced in accordance with their conservation thinking.

It has been positioned overlooking the gorilla and orang utan islands, and faces our house which is 200 metres away. It was a lovely day and it was fairly quiet there. The bench is nice and sports a brass plaque, simply engraved “Precious Memories of Freddie Wills 19 March 2006 – 2 May 2007.”

It is a really nice quiet location that many people pass by. Whilst I was sitting on the bench Rachel noticed something rather strange. A few feet away, on the path sat a Peacock butterfly which was basking in the sun. It stayed there for a minute, enough time for me to get a close-up photograph, before fluttering off out of sight. Very strange. Those who have followed the ‘blog will have remembered the relevance of butterflies, as one appeared just after Fred died on the 2 May 2007. They have appeared in various situations since, even in the middle of winter.

As we set off back to the entrance a family came by and stopped and read the plaque. They noted that Freddie was just 13 months when he died, and went off explaining to their children, who were toddlers, what the bench was all about. Very sad in one way to hear strangers talking about our Fred in that way, but in another it was exactly why we wanted the bench.