Maria Arnold died, aged 43, on the 5th July 2022 from cancer. She was greatly loved, is so desperately missed and the loss of her grieved.

We are planning her funeral and some people have asked if they can donate to anything in her name.

Maria once said to Elian that she'd like to be buried beneath a fruit tree.

The beautiful peaceful place of her burial doesn't include fruit trees but it led to the idea of setting up a community orchard in Maria's memory. Much of Maria's work (and in her personal life too) has spanned environment, public and mental health. Community orchards are a good thing in every way and it seemed a beautiful thing to do in her name.

The brief is that it must be genuinely accessible for the community, somewhere in Edinburgh which is meaningful and accessible for the children. There's no set idea how big the orchard must be, but it must include a cherry tree for Maria.

Community projects like this are complex, there's many factors to consider such as land and access and working with community groups.
Friends of Maria's who work in Edinburgh in related sectors have offered to work with Elian and Orla to help turn this from an idea into a reality - but we don't know exactly what this will look like. The time scales envisaged are that it would come together over the next year and we will share updates here.

Any money donated but not needed will be donated to St Columba's Hospice. While Maria didn't make it there they provide such kindness and support for families like ours in personally heartbreaking times.

We will of course share full updates here.