children, inspiration, parenthood, Photography, Poetry

The Place of Corrie’s Dreams: with a poetry excerpt

Corrie's Mom

It’s that time.

My husband, John, and I had planned to build a Memorial Garden in honor of our daughter, Corrie, not long after she graduated to heaven. My father, George, with his landscape dream, planned for a butterfly design after she came to him in a dream with the butterfly.

Our farm has also been in recovery from the tornado. A lot of our focus has been placed outside. We planned for three phases of work to make the garden beautiful and successful. For Phase 2, we will build a retaining wall, and put down dirt, so her garden does not wash away.

For those who don’t know, Corrie loved the farm left to us by her grandfather. She adored the plants and flowers she found. It gave her and her brother more opportunities than they ever had to stretch their imagination wings. We hope as the heat disperses some, we will begin working outside for longer.

Knowing her love for the farm and in honor of us moving into Phase 2: The Retaining Wall, I started another poem, still untitled. It is about how much Corrie loved this place.

Did you ever stop and hear about the

house of which Corrie dreamed? Did

you walk with her in the field behind

our house long before her father cut

for us a walking path, and she often

tripped over the hidden sticks with

little briars that stuck to her dress,

and I nicknamed them the “sticky

sticks.” In the dip of the land below

the stair step hill where the apple

trees once grew, Corrie said, “I want

to build my house here, Mommy, so

I can look up at your house.”

Currently untitled by rebecca t. dickinson, corrie’s mom
A picture of the flower bed that had belonged to John’s Mom as of last April. It is currently home to plants for Corrie that will go in the garden.
The flower bed currently home to some of the plants that will go into the larger Memorial Garden.
Corrie looking out the window last April of what would become her bedroom.
The Mountain Laurel bush with flowers Corrie picked this year and last year.
Corrie picked these on the first day we moved to the farm, and I was so upset with her.
Part of the area where Corrie’s garden will go. It has lost some trees, and those trees have been removed after they were torn up from the ground in the tornado.
When we talk about hard work this then four-year-old helped in the demolition of what would become her bedroom last April.

Photos and Words by Rebecca T. Dickinson. All work is the property and copyrighted by R.T. Dickinson, 2019-2020.

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Published by Corrie's Mom

They say teacher turn over is high right now, and many teachers will leave the profession in five years or less. I will enter my seventh year as a full-time teacher, and my 12th year in education after I'd started as a sub and teacher assistant. I was the student in the 1990s you did not want in your classroom because I was diagnosed with ADHD and did not know how to socialize with other kids. I was due to be tested for autism, but this was considered an ostracizing experience for a child then, especially a girl. I am a third generation teacher and author of seventeen creative works.

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