MARCH 29, 2007 - BUILDING MEMORIAL GARDENS TO HONOR OUR CHILDREN: JO ANN GLIM

Jo Ann Glim, a true survivor who lost her father at age five and her mother at age fourteen.  However, she tells us, that it wasn’t until she retired, endured the death of a grandchild, and experienced a debilitating stroke that her true vocation became clear.  Jo Ann founded and serves as President of the Children’s Memorial and Gardens, a non-profit organization whose vision is to connect gardens dedicated to the memory of our children through a national registry; and to raise awareness as to the Effects and complexities of child-loss grief.  http://www.childrensmemorialandgarden.org/ <http://www.childrensmemorialandgarden.org/> 

Jo Ann Glim:  The ideas for the gardens started when Melissa had passed away and we were standing at her gravesite and I made a vow that the voices of the children would never be silenced.  As soon as I did that, every fiber in my body, I saw a vision of tear drops that were gently touching and there was this melodic tone and I thought, I’m supposed to do something about this, and the idea of the gardens came to me instantly.  I thought what better way to celebrate our children and to make sure that they’re always recognized that they’re with us.

Jo Ann Glim:  I’ve always been into gardening.  I love it.  I’m not good at it but I love it.  I’m very very happy when I see something blossom and I’m always in awe when we go to a botanical garden and see the beauty that people can create who really have a talent.  But I’ve always been fascinated because with flowers, there’s such symbolism in the cycle of life and you really get to appreciate not only the beauty of it but the delicateness of it.  I think that just really ties right into what happens with us when we lose a child.  Plus, there’s a growth that happens in a garden.  It’s very slow and sometimes you don’t even notice what’s happening and I think that’s what happens to us in our healing process.  It’s very slow and you don’t even realize that you are becoming better and until you see someone else who has lost a child recently and realized that you are strong enough to reach out and to help that person.

Jo Ann Glim:  They’re pretty resilient, yes.  It’s the blossoms that fade away, but there’s always that promise of renewal and there’s so much symbolism and people when they’re in a garden they think about it and they find their own sense of healing and comfort within that garden.

Jo Ann Glim:  We wanted to develop a national registry with the names of the gardens because each one has such a unique story.  Some of them were started because of a particular cause.  Some of them are there because they’re honoring a particular child and it was a devastating loss to the full community.  And some of those are just providing a place of welcome for those that are in sorrow.

Jo Ann Glim:  They have a lot of symbolism in the garden up in Franklin.  We had a chance to visit it a couple of years ago.  It’s an intimate little spot with these huge trees that hang over it.  There’s a nice little swing that you can sit on and look at the garden.  There is a stone wall as she was saying but there’s one corner of the stone wall where it just kind of falls into rubble and they did it specifically that way to show that it symbolizes the lives that have been unfinished.

Jo Ann Glim:  I’m just so grateful that I met Pastor Rod and I remember seeing it when it was just scrub brush back there and sat in the parking lot and cried for this child and cried for him and the people in his congregation because it was a very devastating time down here when this happened and it has turned out to be such a place of beauty.

Jo Ann Glim:  One of the things that I just wanted to leave with everybody because I guess I have an optimistic outlook no matter what happens in my life is that for each of us who have gone through grief, we have an understanding that when we’ve lost a child that a lot of people don’t, and so we need to lovingly turn that perspective to helping others in the community to understand what it is that we need to help ourselves through this type of a grief and having a garden someplace where people in the community can congregate and to support the people who have been grieving is a good way to start a situation like that to start opening up some dialogue.

Jo Ann Glim:  Most of us who do this including us, we’ve been working on this since 1995 and I always jokingly say when I go out to speak that we work on pennies and prayers and that’s exactly what has brought us through.  And like Pastor Rod said, it’s the donations and the compassion of the people in the community that there does come a time when reality sets in and there are expenses that need to be taken care of in order to continue this type of work and so I know for any of the gardens that are represented on our website, I know that they can use help and I know that we ourselves definitely can use help as well.