Parents find solace at Hong Kong's 'Forever Love' crematorium

Source: The Straits Times

HONG KONG - Behind the doors of a terracotta-pink building with sloping arches is a facility unlike any other in Hong Kong - the city's sole crematorium where bereaved parents can say goodbye to their unborn babies.

Launched in 2022, the Home of Forever Love provides free cremations for foetuses of less than 24 weeks' gestation.

Greenery fans across the facility's curved, geometric architecture - a stark contrast to the rocky cemetery located next door - while a trail leads to a garden where the ashes can be scattered.

"The first mission... is to ease the pain" of families for the farewell ceremony, said Benny Lee, co-founding director of BREADstudio, which designed the building that houses the crematorium.

The cremation process mimics a familiar bedtime ritual, he said.

After placing a box holding the foetus's remains into the inner chamber of a small altar, parents can switch off the light and close the wooden doors "like they are putting the baby to sleep", Mr Lee told AFP.

"We want the families to feel that their loved one is not going into a wasteland, but going back into nature," added co-founder Paul Mui.

While the Home of Forever Love is the only crematorium in the city providing these services, government-maintained gardens also offer parents a resting place for their lost loved ones.

One, the Garden of Forever Love in east Hong Kong, is where Ms Lok found a resting place for her unborn baby after she had an abortion at 20 weeks.