Memorial garden
nurtures memories

By Jeannie O’Sullivan
Times Staff Writer

Laurie Sanchez didn’t know much about horticulture when she decided to start a memorial garden at the Northeast Community Center.
But she did know how it felt when plants, lovingly placed near the graves of loved ones, disappeared at the hands of cemetery maintenance workers.
Roots of Eternity, a community garden underway at the Northeast Community Center, will house living memorials that won’t be taken away.
Sanchez’s sister, Wendy Ritter, was killed by an Amtrak train in 1991.
Three years ago, Sanchez lost her cousin, Sean Rose, to a brain aneurysm on New Year’s Eve.
"I don’t want it to be a mourning place," Sanchez said of the garden. "I want it to be a remembering place, with good times and good thoughts."
Green is the symbol of life, particularly for Northeast Community Center program director Mindy Lange.
Paul Lange had sent his wife roses every single week before he died of a heart attack in 2001. In addition to the flowers that she still gets — Paul’s friend, Jim Caprio, has continued the tradition — Lange will be able to see a living reminder of Paul every day at work.
"Everyone knows how important it is to me," said Lange. "Now everyone can share in it."
People have already reserved spots in the garden, which will be planted on a 400-square-foot slope on the southeast side of the center’s property on Holme Avenue. Sanchez said the annuals and perennials — possibly 1,000 in all — will intertwine throughout the rocks in a ribbon-like design set in a blanket of wood chips.
"It will look pretty sharp," she said.
Each plant will be tagged with the name of a loved one who has passed away. Donations are welcome, but not necessary, said Sanchez.
The project kicked into gear two weeks ago, when Sanchez collected nearly $200 in donations from the community-center clients who loved the idea.
Seeking donations from businesses was admittedly harder, but the Bridge in Season Corner, a Bucks County nursery, offered her a discount on annuals and perennials. Home Depot also contributed a $250 gift card, which Sanchez used for gardening supplies, as well as the use of tilling equipment.
The Penn State Cooperative Extension’s horticultural program helped out with weekly gardening lessons and landscape design for the project.
Sanchez said the overgrown land was "like a forgotten place, but with so much potential."
Philadelphia Cares, a volunteer coordination organization, sent a steady stream of volunteers who busily tilled, weeded and dug until the soil was in shape. The project was perfect for the group of 13 teens who helped out one day last week.
"It fits with our goal to participate in intergenerational community projects," said Monica Guzman, a youth project coordinator for Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a social-services agency in North Philadelphia. "There are so many generations in Philadelphia."
Sally Cortese, a fan of the center’s aerobics classes, has reserved plants for her late son, Michael Cortese, whom she lost in a car accident, and for her brother, Harry Smith, who succumbed to a heart attack.
"I’ll still visit the cemetery," she said. "But I know these plants won’t be weed-whacked." ••
For information on Roots of Eternity, call the Northeast Community Center at 215-335-0870.
Reporter Jeannie O’Sullivan can be reached at 215-354-3038 or osullivanj@phillynews.com