Memorial Garden provides reflection

Fresh petunias, pansies, marigolds and more were planted Wednesday at the Hospice Memorial Grove, located at the Southeastern Idaho Public Health building at 1901 Alvin Ricken Drive. But for one man, his pride and joy is the rose garden.

“My wife loved roses,” said Clayton Ooley, remembering his wife of 57 and a half years, Dorothy, who passed away in 2004. “I met her in February of 1947, we got married in June of 1947.”

The roses, along with the other flowers, are planted in spring, bloom through the summer and are removed at the end of September. Southeastern Idaho Public Health said this planting is about emotional health through a group setting.

“You build and make that bond with other people,” said Karla Alex, who helped coordinate the event. “Lifelong friendships are started here in the garden.”

Not only do the seven flowerbeds represent the seven days of the week and time going on, the flowers themselves represent the life cycle of blooming, and then dying. For the last 13 years the tradition has been to plant the flowers, have a simple flag raising ceremony then share a meal together.

“People need to be together, we’re not individual islands,” said Alex. “We work better when we help each other.”