For Stacey Hassler, Our Garden of Angels is the lone place she can go to escape the anger over her daughter's murder and the ongoing frustration she feels for the slow-moving legal system. "Out here," she says, "you don't dwell on the negatives. This garden has changed me a great deal. When you go through the loss of your child, you suddenly find yourself in a world you don't understand. Everything looks the same, smells the same, tastes the same, but, really, everything is different. You feel crazy."
"I had a difficult time dealing with that until I met the people involved with this place." Now, she makes the trip to the end of Mossier Valley Road at least once a week.
"Carolyn Barker told me about the garden and took me out to look at it. The minute I saw it, I knew I wanted a cross there for my daughter and Jacob, my unborn grandson."
Now she often brings her grandchildren along to visit the garden. "They bring little things they've made to place near 'Mommy's cross.' They talk with her and enjoy playing near the waterfall. They love it here."
The garden has become a haven to young and old.
When a close friend stabbed Vernon and Linda Price's son to death on Mother's Day in 1999, they were suddenly distanced from their newborn grandchild. Their daughter-in-law, needing support from her own family in California, chose to move there after her husband's murder. The Prices understood and supported her decision but endured another wave of sadness. "What happened," Vernon says, "not only took our son, but put us in the position of not being able to see our grandchild nearly as often as we would like."
For the Prices, the garden has become a welcome refuge. Living just a few miles from the site, they volunteered for the role of caretakers, seeing that wind-blown trash is collected and no weeks invade the area.
"There's a peaceful feeling here that I've experienced nowhere else," Vernon says as he walks along the brick trail that winds towards the cross that bears his son's name. "It is not a sad place, whether you're here alone or in the company of others who have lost loved ones. This is where our healing took place."
"You can talk to people until you're blue in the face, trying to explain what the garden means to us, but unless you've shared a similar experience, it is an impossible task. That, I think, is why there is such a close kinship among those who have crosses here. You come here and you meet people who understand, who can share your feeling without so much as a single word being exchanged."
"There is no violence here," Linda Price said. "This is not a place for feeling anger or hatred or pointing fingers of blame. Here, we celebrate the lives of those whose names are on the crosses. We think and talk about the good times. We laugh and joke. And in doing so, gain the strength to look ahead to another day."
11271 Mossier Valley Road
Euless, Texas 76040
gardenofangelTX@aol.com (Email)
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