When Howard Howes lost his wife Janet in 1995, his life changed forever. She died at 50 from heart failure, leaving behind
their Gloucestershire farm and decades of memories. Searching for a lasting tribute, Howard turned to the land they had shared.
On a six-acre field beside his farmhouse, he planted thousands of oak saplings but left a clearing shaped like a heart.
Its tip pointed directly toward Wotton Hill, Janet’s childhood home. “It was a flash of inspiration,”
he recalled. Later, he placed a bench overlooking the hill, where he often sat to remember her.
For over ten years, the meadow was his private sanctuary, especially in spring when daffodils bloomed
inside the heart. “It’s a lovely and lasting tribute,” Howard said. “Something that will be here long after I am gone.”
The secret remained hidden until 2012, when hot-air balloonist Andy Collett spotted the shape from above.
Photographs of the “heart meadow” quickly spread worldwide, touching countless people.
Howard, who married Janet in 1962, said he still sometimes flies over it himself: “From the air, it’s incredible.”
What began as grief grew into a living monument — proof that love can be planted and remembered forever.
