How does Corrie’s Garden Grow?

When Corrie earned her wings, we requested everyone donate live plants for a memorial garden.

John, my father, sister-in-law and I had to divide the work for Corrie’s Memorial Garden up into phases. We had offers of help, and we wanted to call upon volunteers who were willing to give their time without overusing it.

We hosted a day in June so we could remove barn debris for a tractor to help us with work in assembling the memorial garden. My father had a dream where Corrie showed him a butterfly design of the garden, and it served as our inspiration.

It’s October. I haven’t written as much about the garden lately.

It begs the questions, “How does Corrie’s garden grow?”

When school started in August, my son, Hayes, and I had to get used to the A Day and B Day schedule. We had to adapt to hybrid learning. We had to adapt to a new school year without Corrie and our other puppy, Shadow Jack.

As time has passed, we have found we are just busy even as we deal with our grief.

John is aware we are approaching mid-October as we look at phase 2 for Corrie’s garden and the desire to plant before winter arrives. He has faced two challenges. One is planning out a type of drain system, so that when the rain comes, it does not wash away her plants.

In addition to this, he wants to build up the retaining wall. He knows I’m ready to plan a day to help him, especially since my experience in doing such things are very limited. I just learned how to weed eat.

When John has approached what needs to be done before having a second volunteer day, he has also faced his own grief. We’ve both dealt with the start, stop, start, stop experiences in our journey with grief, and I know it doesn’t matter autumn’s timeline, he has to be ready for the pipe system, building wall, and spreading of the dirt.

The plants are being cared for in their current nursery areas. We hope to continue our journey with her memorial garden as soon as possible.

In the meantime, we continue to walk through grief, and to put all the love we have for Corrie to use.

By Rebecca T. Dickinson