Around 300 family and friends of a woman who was found dead after vanishing from a maternity hospital with her baby daughter gathered on Friday to pay tribute to mother and child.
Charlotte Bevan and her daughter, Zaani Tiana Bevan Malbrouck, were found in the Avon Gorge after their disappearance on Tuesday 2 December from the St Michael’s maternity unit in Bristol.
An inquiry is under way after it emerged that Bevan, 30, who had mental health issues, was not challenged as she walked from the unit dressed in slippers, with her four-day-old child wrapped in a blanket.
A single coffin was carried into Christ Church in Clifton for the funeral service. The church was packed and the service was relayed to many others who had gathered outside.
Bevan’s partner, Pascal Malbrouck, said: “Charlotte, she was my joy, my hope, my strength, my mentor, and every minute I spent with her she taught me something. She taught me to love often, to be patient with love, to appreciate beauty and to find the best in others, never give up and try again, to give oneself to the world and make it a little better for everybody else. That was Charlotte. I think all this is a trial and trial gives strength, sorrow and understanding and wisdom.”
Fighting back tears, he added: “I miss her so much. She filled me with hope. I hope to see you again, lovely, and I wish and I want to enjoy your journey with you again.”
Malbrouck said his daughter’s name, Zaani Tiana, meant “the one we look upon with love”.
“I think this name, when we gave it to her, was well chosen because I hope everybody here today will look upon her with love,” he said. “Her life has been short, very short, but I can tell you that every single minute of it … she was a happy baby. Four days may not seem much but to me it was an eternity and those memories will stay with me forever.”
Bevan’s mother, Rachel Fortune, told the congregation that since the tragedy her family had been “enveloped in a shield of love so strong that words cannot describe it”.
She added: “Today is one of thanksgiving for Charlotte and Zaani’s lives. All other matters are for another time.”
There was laughter when Fortune described her granddaughter’s smile. “I am like any grandmother when I tell you how beautiful my granddaughter was, how she smiled at me … and it wasn’t wind. She looked at me when I spoke to her,” she said.
