Yet this summer, thousands of people will stop in front of her sculpture and see fragments of the town reflected back at them.

Echoes of Dartford is one of more than 80 sculptures in ellenor’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt trail, the first of its kind for the charity and the town. For a few months, brightly painted bears will appear in streets, shopping centres and everyday corners of Dartford changing the rhythm of everyday life.

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Across the bear’s body, a honeycomb of archive images shows Dartford as it once was. Old streets. Railway scenes. Churches, public spaces, and fragments of everyday life. Some places are still recognisable. Others have changed beyond recognition.

“Echoes of Dartford is for the people of Dartford,” Henrika says. “I wanted people to recognise places of their own story within it – to remember what once stood here, reconnect with moments from their lives, and pass those memories on to future generations.”

Originally from Lithuania, Henrika earned a Master’s degree in Fine Art before life gradually led her into photography. For more than 15 years, she has worked with photographs and family albums, preserving weddings, childhoods, milestones, and fleeting moments – helping people hold on to memories that might otherwise fade with time.

This project, she says, feels different.

“I usually create something very personal” she says. “Something only one family will see. This is different. These images belong to everyone.”

The photographs used in Echoes of Dartford were sourced from local archives of Dartford Borough Museum and mostly date from the early 20^th century. For Henrika, who has lived in Dartford for ten years, working with them became a way of understanding her adopted home more deeply.

“I spent half my life in Lithuania and half here in UK,” she says. “Dartford feels like my second home.”

She grew up in the old town of Kaunas, surrounded by historic buildings and narrow streets. As a child, she remembers her father teaching her to draw and her mother signing her up for public outdoor art competitions, where she stood at an easel in the town square alongside her twin sister and other children while passersby stopped to watch.

That sense of place and people has always stayed with her.

“If I went back home, the very first places I would visit would be the ones where I grew up – my childhood home, which has now been turned into a music museum, my nursery, my school, the old streets in the heart of the old town where I grew up, and the art academy where I studied,” she says. “People move on, but places stay with you. You remain connected to them.”

That idea sits at the heart of her sculpture. Each honeycomb cell holds a fragment of Dartford’s past. But Henrika has deliberately left some spaces empty.

“The idea was to leave space for the future,” she says. “For new memories to be added. Because the story is still being written.”

In many ways, that feels fitting for ellenor too. Henrika’s sculpture is one of more than 80 appearing across Dartford this summer as part of the charity’s public art trail. Much of hospice care is about helping people hold on to moments, memories and one another during the hardest times.

Henrika had not heard of ellenor before submitting her design. Through the project, she has started to understand the role the charity plays for local families living with a life-limiting illness.

“I didn’t know about ellenor before,” she says. “But I can see now how important it is for local families.”

There is another memory hidden within the sculpture, too. Henrika created the bear alongside her daughter, Barbora, as a mother-daughter artistic duo. Barbora carefully hand-painted the stencils used to transfer the historic images onto its surface and also suggested including an image of the legendary Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Together, they added two small bees to the design – a subtle personal detail quietly woven into the artwork.

“That was her idea,” Henrika says. “Barbora really wanted to add her personal touch – It’s our signature. Mum and daughter working together.”

For Henrika, that mattered just as much as the finished bear.

I wanted to show her how something you create doesn’t just stay on paper. It can be out there, for everyone to see.”

When the trail opens in July, thousands of people will bring their own memories to Echoes of Dartford. A shop they remember. A street that no longer exists. A story once told by a grandparent. Some may only glance at it in passing. Others may find themselves standing there longer than they expected.

Henrika hopes the bear will spark pride, curiosity and conversation.

“People will talk about the past – about the places they remember, the stories they grew up with, and the history they may never have known before.”

Like the trail itself, the sculpture is about connection. Bringing people together through shared stories, memories and place while raising awareness of ellenor and the care it provides across the community.

Asked what her younger self would think if she stood in front of the sculpture now, she smiles.

“I think my younger self would feel immensely proud of what we achieved together with my daughter.”

Perhaps that is part of what makes Echoes of Dartford feel so special. Rooted in the town’s past, it is also about memory. The streets people remember, the old photographs and fragments of history passed from one generation to the next.

And now, for a little while at least, they will become part of the town again.