Mark Katrick faith column: How to create a memorial garden in 7 steps this Memorial Day
This is the time of year my memory banks are decorated with gardens. I’m a child again and exploring our big backyard and its wide assortments of planted and transplanted flowers and vegetables, just waiting to burst forth at the official start summer.
It’s no wonder then, that Memorial Day is often referred to as Decoration Day. It’s because the graves of loved ones who served their country are decorated with the “Beauty of the Earth.” It was the blooms from my mother’s row of rose bushes that were placed at the final resting place of my Uncle Tony.
Tucked away into a corner of the church I’m blessed to serve, Brighton Presbyterian, is a memorial garden. It is faithfully tended by a married couple, Debbie and Steve, who are members of the congregation.
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The dedication of these breathtakingly beautiful symbols of new and renewed life is an occasion for our members and friends to observe All Saints’ Day on a biannual basis. It’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate the eternal lives of ones who continue to guide and inspire us and remain near and dear to our hearts.
On this holiday weekend that’s all about remembering, how will you remember your dearly departed? By passing around photographs and sharing stories that bring them right back to life? By conducting your own graveside services decorated with fresh-cut flowers from your gardens? Or by inviting family and friends to the backyard barbecues of which they were so very much a part?
I asked Debbie how to go about starting my own memorial garden. And this is how she responded:
How to make a memorial garden in 7 steps
Have a place to plant flowers.
Be blessed with some cash to buy plants and supplies.
Get a strong helper to dig and prepare the soil.
Purchase for your location — sunny or shady areas.
Plant and water-in well.
Have your pastor and congregation bless it.
Remember all the wonderful saints who blessed our lives every time we pass by and smell the flowers.
Upon completion of my memorial garden, I will update you in my upcoming column, on Friday, June 14, Flag Day. Here are the words with which I will bless it:
Your name, LORD, endures forever/ Your renown, LORD, through all generations./ For the LORD will vindicate his people/ And have compassion on his servants. Psalm 135:13-14.
Mark Katrick is a pastor and spiritual guide.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mark Katrick faith column: How to create a memorial garden in 7 steps
