AIDS Memorial Garden

In the Spring of 1995, Elder Ben Colvin proposed that an AIDS memorial Garden be established on the campus of the Old South Haven Church.  The Session quickly approved the suggestion.  Community groups, Thursday's Child (an AIDS/HIV housing and support organization in Patchogue), and the AIDS Collective joined the effort.  

By September 1995, the beds were ready for planting.  While there may be others, the following are recorded as contributors:  The Japanese Maple has been given by Alan and Betty Stevens in memory of their friend and neighbor, Karen Toronto, who died of AIDS at the age of twenty-six.  Other contributors to the Memorial Garden are: John and Betty Ann Biggers, Edna Tooker, Debbie Sermet, Charlie Petrie, Geoffrey Weber, Deb Ahrend, Shyrle Hervst, John Deitz and Richard Thomas, Nell Bard, Jeff Glayzer and Michael Loftus, Bob and Jeanne Baum, Kappy Tilney, Dick and Linda Ploth,  the East Moriches Presbyterian Church, and a bench in memory of Mario Antonio Vera.  The Montauk Daises at the foot of the church walk were given in memory of Lydia Awadallah and her seven year old son, Amir, who died of A.I.D.S.  In addition, the ashes of several individuals, both recorded and unknown, have been scattered in the garden.

Dedication.

Leader: Loving God, we thank you for those in whose memory we dedicate this garden.

People: We thank you, God.

Leader: We pray that all they held dear will be remembered and honored by those who come after them.

People: Hear our prayer, O God.

Leader: We ask that their special gifts will continue to be valued by us long after their deaths.

People: Hear our prayer, O God.

Leader: We pray that their spirits will live in our hearts and give strength to us in our times of need.

People: Hear our prayer, O God.

Leader: All of us are people of faith, awaiting the day when AIDS is a distant memory.

People: O Creator God, you have fashioned a world of great beauty, yet a world shared with each of us for only a time. We pray for that “right spirit within” that will allow us to see the beauty in this garden, the flowers, the shrubs, the trees. May they be living and loving memorials to those we have loved and who have preceded us in death.