For the love of our special angel who we miss so very much & always
will..
Angels are Real... [Download
pdf file]
First shared in small part by
Laura’s dad on August 9th, 2007 and expanded on April 23rd
2010.
Don’t weep at my grave... [Download pdf file]
Read by Laura’s little sister,
Danielle 12, on April 23rd 2010.
Lost our special Angel... [Download pdf
file]
Silent Angels (Life with a
special needs child)... [Download pdf file]
Written & published by
Laura’s mom.
This is the run-in
where I would wait in the mornings, over a period of several years, with Laura
for her little school bus.
We called it
‘the little house’. We extensively
decorated it for Christmas, Halloween and Easter.
Although we had
promises of help to move the run-in from the end of the driveway, weeks passed
and the help never materialized.
Cindy, Peter
& I manually moved the 1000+ lb. run-in ourselves over 150 feet to what
will become Laura’s Garden.
A close up of the
‘little house’ with a water fall/fountain on the left.
Danielle paid
for the fountain using most of her savings account.
This is the area
of our yard, a work in progress on
Butterfly Bushes
will form a curved wall between the ‘little house’ & the entrance.
The grass has been partially removed after using a sod cutter on the
entire right half
up to the chairs,
but then the clutch jammed, stuck in cut & drive (it broke).
Glowing promises
of help, labor & materials by a landscape company made in April
turned out to not be
real, being withdrawn after meeting with us 3 times & planning details.
This was the
dedication of Laura’s Garden on
I apologize as
not everyone appears in this photo, which was neither posed
nor arranged.
Cindy spoke
about Laura & I spoke about fireflies, dandelions & other things that
Laura loved so much.
Cindy then
offered anyone who wished to that they could spread Laura’s ashes in her
garden.
Cindy &
Bernie sitting & talking on our porch talking on
Baba (Laura’s
paternal grandmother) & Helen listening to Peter’s conversation on
Laura’s Uncle
Bill & Aunt Rose are standing at the edge of the garden. Laura enjoyed to visit them but hated the
long ride.
June 5th
2010.
Russ our
neighbor & friend for 2 decades enjoyed often visiting with us.
A 5-second time
exposure of the butterfly lights in the ‘little house’ on
The 80 solar
powered butterfly lights slowly change color all night long.
My nephew Steve
(Bill’s son) showed up to get things moving at
after a 3½ hour ride
(not counting the time to pickup the rental equipment), & set to work
clearing the areas that
are to be planted, as well as extensive overgrowth (not seen),
where a culvert will
be placed to correct the drainage back to its natural state.
Steve commenting
that “I know I’m seriously overloaded, but it’s not quite double the towing
capacity,
and I take it
slow”. What he was towing weighted more
than the vehicle towing it.
Who needs a
truck anyway, thanks Steve,
The results of 3½
hours of work, including stump removal & more by Steve,
I know it is a
mess, but it is a work in progress & will look great, I keep telling
Cindy.
Now I have to
manually cleaning up the edges and the surrounding area with a
shovel, rake &
wheel barrel this weekend. Peter & Danielle will be helping me on
father’s day. Planting
soil & stone should arrive next week, and we will finally get
the butterfly
bushes, and other plants in the ground where they belong, to grow.
Steve & Rose
showed up at
10 cubic yards,
the stone dust 2 cubic yards & stones arrived. Unfortunately, the truck dumping
the soil got stuck
& tore up the grass with 6 in. + ruts, some more work that has to be tended
to.
The entrance of
the path is where an arbor will be.
Peter & Danielle literally dug in when they
got home from ½ days
at their schools (HCRHS &
A wide view of
Laura’s Garden on
yet including
reseeding damaged grass, digging & installing the culvert to correct
drainage and more.
Thank you Steve,
Rose, Bill, Peter, Danielle and Cindy for making Laura’s Garden become real.
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Considerable
work remains, details & more, but we wanted to share Laura’s Garden with
you.
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Laura loved to
try to catch the birds at
She always asked
if she could have one as a pet and we always said yes if she could catch one
she could take it home.
Alas, although
she had a lot of fun trying, she never caught one. Pictures of Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
The “little
house” aka run-in is in its final location, but still needs to be leveled.
Pictures of
Laura’s Garden
This is the
Hasty Acres Heads Up Special Riders plaque at the
entrance to Laura’s Garden on
Hasty Acres
Heads Up Special Riders bench and plaque at the
entrance to Laura’s Garden on
Twilight
descends upon Laura’s Garden.
Light fading fast
as 80 solar powered butterfly lights and 24 solar powered path lights
illuminate Laura’s Garden.
A 5 second time exposure, using manual focus, of Laura’s
Garden illuminated only by the solar powered lights.
A gift from
Laura’s cousin Jaclyn that she bought while on vacation, she wanted a pug for
the Garden because Skip,
Laura’s pug was
always at her side.
Laura’s Garden
Laura’s Garden
A
Tiger Swallowtail butterfly feeding on a flower of the butterfly bush. Laura’s Garden
Late in the
afternoon Cindy saw 3 Tiger Swallowtail butterflies on
the same flower in Laura’s Garden.
I was able to
get one picture of them together, then they went to
different plants. Laura’s Garden
One Tiger
Swallow Tail butterfly with slightly broken wings flew around me many times
and towards my face several times over about 15 minutes. Laura’s Garden
A sunflower flag
next to sunflowers Cindy planted in the garden.
Laura’s Garden
Laura’s Garden
Laura has a
Flemish Giant rabbit that is over 26 pounds (a runt), we brought to her school
& showed it as the Easter Bunny.
Laura’s Garden
Laura’s Garden
Laura’s Garden
Laura loved to
feed the ducks at
This year we saw
a mother & father duck but we did not see any baby ducks with them, we fed
them but it was very sad
that their baby
ducks were missing. Laura’s Garden
Laura’s Garden
Laura’s Garden
Laura’s Garden
A bird bath from
A gift from
Ashley & Jacob for Laura’s Garden
Laura was always so extremely happy &
very proud to say “I’m your Aunt Laura” to Jacob &
Ashley.
Laura wanted to just simply love them, hold
them, play with them and to help take care of them in
any way at all.
It made her so very happy when she
could. It was one of the very few times
her hands did not tremble or shake.
The arbor at the
end of the walk, forming the entrance to Laura’s Garden
The arbor still
needs to be mounted and positioned properly as of that
date.
The arbor
positioned and securely mounted forming the entrance to Laura’s Garden on
Five cubic yards
of mulch was moved from the driveway with a wheelbarrow and
spread by hand at Laura’s Garden.
A
Monarch butterfly visiting Laura’s Garden on Laura’s Garden on
We have also had
Tiger Swallow Tail and Black Swallow Tail butterflies in the garden
as well as many
types of moths, humming birds and bees.
A ceramic dove nesting in the new mulch at Laura’s Garden on
Danielle bought
the dove in
Thank
you Norma and Jim for the vacation.
A holly tree
with green berries at Laura’s Garden on
a gift of a tiny
4 or 5 inch tree from an old work friend at the City of
You can see
parts of the drainage ditch behind the tree that my nephew Steve and his cousin
David
constructed with help from our son Peter.
A very colorful
mum that caught our eye and was on clearance (unfortunately the picture doesn’t
do it justice,
no matter how I
adjust or do not adjust it), the actual mum in Laura’s Garden on
Sophie,
Laura’s cat stretching out in Laura’s Garden after having a drink of water from
the ceramic butterfly bowl on
A wishing well
that Cindy likes and so do I in Laura’s Garden
On August 22, I took
a picture of the Wishing Well and I was surprised when I looked up and saw a
rainbow over Laura’s Garden.
Rose, Laura’s
aunt, sang a beautiful moving version of “Somewhere Over The
Rainbow” at Laura’s memorial service.
It would have been a lot easier
and faster if we had an unlimited budget, even any budget to create Laura’s
Garden,
but alas we had a negative
budget. A number of
the items and services were donated by generous family and friends.
Glowing promises of help, labor
& materials made in April by a professional landscape company to remove the
grass, turn over the soil put in a
walk & edging turned out to not be real.
After meeting with us 3 times, drawing
up plans, picking out stone types
and patterns, they reneged on their promise just 2 days before the dedication,
leaving us with plants in buckets &
pots rather than properly planted in the garden.
Almost all of the items we
purchased where at discounts ranging from 10% to 90% with most from 30% to 75%
or more off their list price.
Laura’s Garden is a stressful but
healing labor of love from her family and many friends.
We miss you Laura, Skip keeps
looking for you in your room & waiting for you on the deck to come home
from school,
barking when anyone shows up. Sophie keeps visiting your garden looking for
you. We all miss you so very much.
I just don’t
understand why you can’t come home so I can tell you I love you and to hear
your voice saying you love me.
On Tuesday night
She would not
stop so I finally did with my cell phone with only the 4 watt
night light on in her bedroom (no flash).
The first time
the picture was all black, I moved the night light
& took this second photograph, which I showed to Laura
and said ‘we can see
you now’, I almost never showed Laura the pictures on my camera let along my
cell phone.
Laura then told
me ‘thank you, I love you daddy’. I gave
her a kiss and said, ‘I love you too hon (honey),
please go to sleep so
you won’t be tired for school in the morning.’
Laura loved
going to the Midland School so much
that she was lost on snow days & holidays.
We cannot
believe that this is the last photograph of our beautiful angel we will ever
have.
I love you Laura
& always will.
Daddy
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