The Memory Garden at Sunstone Cancer Support Center got a little boost earlier this month when 24 bricks in the perimeter wall were inscribed with the names of loved ones who have died of cancer.
The Memory Garden project, begun about six months ago, allows people to honor family members, friends or loved ones by purchasing bricks in the wall surrounding the future garden.
For $250, the honored individual's name is etched into a brick, with the money going toward the cost of staging Sunstone retreats for cancer survivors.
Sunstone recently announced that it has begun to offer for free most of its healing retreats, which once cost hundreds of dollars.
The first group of 20 names was etched onto the wall in July.
Almost as soon as that happened, chairs appeared at the wall, said Patricia Harmon, president and chief executive officer of Sunstone.
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"For so many of us, people make choices to be cremated," said Sunstone groundskeeper Cyndy Briggs, whose brother died of cancer in 1994. His name was in the most recent round of etchings.
When cremation ashes are sprinkled somewhere, families don't have a grave to visit where they can see the person's name, Briggs said.
Her husband, Robin, Sunstone's facilities manager, lost his mother to cancer in 1986. He included her name, too, in the recent etchings.
"That's what we've lost, is a place to go to." The wall gives that back to families, he said.
Situated on 14 acres that used to be a guest ranch near Catalina Highway, about half the property is developed and is used for cancer support retreats.
The wall and Memory Garden area will surround the house that was once the ranch owners' home, Harmon said.
The one-acre tract reconnected the ranch when Sunstone bought it from the owners, she said.
The yard surrounding the house — now mainly dirt — comprises about 1,800 square feet that is being turned into an oasis within the Sunstone oasis.
The house has been converted to a "mind-body center," where retreat participants engage in yoga, Pilates, massage therapy and conference sessions.
The garden itself will eventually include a raised herb garden where survivors — even those who can't get up and down easily — can rest on the edge and poke in the dirt.
Cyndy Briggs said she is most excited about that.
It also will feature a walking area and plants along the memory wall itself, but not blocking the etched bricks.
Though the wall has an entryway to the garden, there is no gate yet. But there will be, Briggs said.
A gate is necessary to fend off the "frolicking javelinas" that love to eat her plants, she said.
"In addition to having a place to come and remember," Harmon said, the Memory Garden "is a place to tell stories. All of us are our stories."
The garden is coming along slowly because new additions are made as donations come in.
Briggs said she has a plant list that she takes to local nurseries, seeking donations. The Sunstone Web site has a plant wish list, sort of like a plant registry, where people can log on and purchase certain plants.
The biggest logistical challenges for Robin Briggs, he said, have been getting quotes from vendors for the concrete walkways that will be part of the garden and figuring out what plants will be most appropriate.
"We want lush, green and serene" but also hardy, he said. So Sunstone already has made some changes in the original garden plans.
Now he's just waiting for funding to get the sidewalks done. Once those are in place, he said, the garden will materialize faster.
Harmon said it's important, even in a place that celebrates life, to remember those who have passed on.
Whether from cancer or not, all of us die eventually, she said.
"Somehow, not to have the Memory Garden would not complete the circle."
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For more information or to help, call 749-1928 or go online to sunstonehealing.org
