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Good Morning In the final monologue of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads revival series screened this week, Monica Dolan played the grieving widow Lorna in the second of two new scripts written specially for this year. Lorna relates how kneeling on the verge of a main road with her flowers at the exact spot where her husband Clifford died in a motorcycle accident brings her solace. Called The Shrine this monologue has all the characteristics of an Alan Bennett script - astute observation, colloquialisms and unexpected revelations. But by highlighting why people feel the need to create those makeshift shrines to be found along many public highways, the central theme of the play is focussed firmly on the importance of place. You see, says Lorna, unless I was here the world would never know that "him dying there has made it a place." Shrines became a feature of Christianity from earliest times. Originally, they marked the spot where the relics of Christian martyrs were buried. They could attract huge crowds as in Jerusalem and Rome. Sometimes, churches were built on them. The overcoming of persecution and adversity is what many of them represent. In the monologue Lorna observes that though sometimes happiness can be a placemarker it's more often that it's death . You know, I so wish that more people told their loved ones where they would most like to be remembered. After a funeral, and I have dealt with many more in recent weeks, it's often left to family members who agonise over where is the right place is for a loved one to finally rest. However unexpected the occasion, the chosen final place is nearly always significant for a reason. Bishop John Inge observed how, from a faith perspective, place intrinsically is not only about how we got from our past to where we are now or even about the place we find ourselves in the present. Rather, we go to certain places to contemplate the future. The mantelpiece clock ticking away relentlessly in the background marks the passing of time during Bennett's latest monologue. Lorna is bereft. We are left in no doubt that any space can become a meaningful place; a shrine, even. It is here that, like any pilgrim, she is continuously drawn. I so often see loved one gaining reassurance from the place. The sense of comfort gained from having somewhere they can go to think or even talk can provide a glimmer of hope to face the future.