What’s especially interesting is the way that the benches frame death. In contrast to the cemetery – a place cordoned off from the living, where remains are interred and which exists solely to mark the end of a life – the memorial bench evokes the vitality of the body and a person’s physical existence. Placed in a park, square or seafront, it returns the memory of them to the hurly-burly of daily life. Friends and relatives gather on the benches on the anniversary of a loved one’s death to celebrate their life and toast their memory. Unlike other forms of public memorial, such as a plaque or a tree, it’s a way-station for the living.