Farmer Does Something Amazing To Honor Late Wife (Photos)

A farmer went above and beyond to create a stunning memorial for his late wife in the middle of a 6-acre field.

Winston Howes’ wife, Janet, died in 1995 from heart failure at the age of 50. The pair married in 1962, and her death left Winston devastated. Soon after her death, he began planning a tribute to his wife — a 6-acre meadow filled with trees planted after Janet’s passing with a heart cut out in the middle. 

“I came up with the idea of creating a heart in the clearing of the field after Janet died,” he told the Daily Mail. “I thought it was a great idea — it was a flash of inspiration — and I planted several thousand oak trees. Once it was completed we put a seat in the field, overlooking the hill near where she used to live. I sometimes go down there, just to sit and think about things. It is a lovely and lasting tribute to her which will be here for years.” 

Winston, the owner of a 112-acre farm in Gloucestershire, England, said he began the memorial in the months that followed his wife’s death, using a hedge to create the heart shape. 

“We got people in especially to do it — there are several thousand trees,” he said. “We planted large oak trees around the edge of the heart then decided to put a hedge around it too. The heart points towards Wotton Hill, where Janet is from. We plant daffodils in the middle that come up in the spring – it looks great. I go out there from time to time and sit in the seat I created.”

The meadow isn’t visible from the road and was a secret within the family until a hot air balloonist spotted it from the air and took photos of it, which quickly went viral after they circulated online.

“I have my own balloon and am quite a regular flyer, but this was the most amazing sight I have ever seen from the sky,” the balloonist, Andy Collett, said. 

“It was a perfect heart hidden away from view — you would not know it was there. You can just imagine the love story.”

Many readers applauded Winston for creating such a fitting and beautiful tribute to his late wife.

“It’s so awesome for her husband to think and do something like that,” one reader commented on Faith Family America’s Facebook page. “So loving , precious things to do…wishes all husband or wives do that when she lose someone they love and lost…awesome. true love.”

“So wonderful,” another wrote. “True love is awesome. If you have that you have everything. That is one thing I have never had and never will. Makes me so sad.” 

“Now that is true love,” one Daily Mail reader commented. “Aww he must have loved her dearly! I told my finance’ about this story which prompted him to dash out and buy me a bunch of flowers! ha ha Love isn’t about fancy dinners or spending tons of money on each other….its what that man has done….a moving tribute that will last an eternity!”

Sources: Daily Mail, Faith Family America/Facebook / Photo credit: Okko Pyykko/Wikimedia Commons, Adam Gray/SWNS.com via Daily Mail