A grieving Edinburgh tourist was left gutted after taking the trip to Calton Hill only to discover the Ricky Gervais After Life bench had disappeared.
Tobias Ebert, 46, who was visiting his family in East Lothian after the death of his beloved aunt, was shocked to discover the memorial bench had been removed.
Suicide prevention charity Calm had teamed up with Netflix to put benches in parks across the country to help people talk about grief and to show it is normal to have those feelings. Each bench was inscribed with the key line from the show, “Hope is everything”.
READ MORE: Family of Edinburgh mum who died on night out raising cash for her funeral
In the show, which tackles grief, depression and the importance of opening up, Ricky Gervais spends a lot of time on a bench in the cemetery while grieving for his wife who died of cancer.
After losing his aunt in a similar way and mum previously, Tobias was moved by the show and was looking forward to having some time to reflect and remember his wonderful aunt in a special location.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live he said: "She was born in 1946 in Austria as the second child of 4. My mother was her elder sister and she went to Britain in the 60's when she was 19.
"There she met her future husband Keith who is from Lancashire. They got married in 1970 and have to two children, Brian and Alison.
"They settled in Scotland in the East Lothian District, where she became a well respected member of the community.
"She worked in the library and last November she was diagnosed with liver cancer which had already spread to the bones. She died only a few months later at the end of April."t
Tomas explained what a beautiful person the mother-of-two was and how she was 'devoted' to her family.
"In the eulogy it said when friends were to describe her she was 'enthusiastic and active, 'bubbly and funny' and 'gave the best hugs.'"
While visiting his heartbroken family in East Lothian the 46-year-old wanted to visit the Ricky Gervais Afterlife bench that was placed on the city hill, after reading about it on Twitter.
After losing both his mum and aunty the Tobias opened up about how the show helped him deal with grief.
He said: "I watched most what Ricky has done but I really loved his depiction of Derek.
"So when Afterlife came out I watched it right away. I had lost my own mum a few years earlier and that had hit me hard. So I was a bit worried because it was about grief.
"But he managed to tell it in heartwarming way."
Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox
The show tackled the important and difficult issues in such a unique way which made it more realistic he explained.
"One moment you laugh, the next you have to shed a tear. I read that it had helped a lot of people in grieving and realising that other people feel the same."
"I read about the benches on Twitter and thought it would be a nice idea to sit there and contemplate. I wanted to go there when I visited early April when she was still alive but couldn't make it then.
"They lived in East Linton, I stayed with my cousins Alison and took the train to Edinburgh to visit the bench and think about Bärbel" he said.
