My Inspiration

Since my Grandpa was in his mid 50’s, he received prostate cancer which spread through his lymph nodes and bones. Through different procedures, he was able to hold it in remission for many years. A few years before his death, he conducted skin cancer in his face which took away half of his nose, but before they could patch his nose up, his doctors discovered his colon cancer, which then very quickly spread to his liver. He wanted to try one last treatment (for my Nana, my aunts and uncles, cousins, brother, sister, father, mother, and myself) and decided to be put on Chemotherapy, which was to try to slow down the growth of the colon and liver cancer. After only a few weeks on the treatment, he quickly found out that the Chemo had accelerated his deterioration. Shortly after, he was put in a Hospice in Mesa, Arizona where he lost his struggle at age 81. Through his many years of struggle with cancer after cancer, he and my Nana were not able to get away from the struggle and reality of his pain due to money and available opportunities which made it hard for him to become strong again. In my hopes, Spirit Gardens would have created an opportunity for them to take and get away from the pain, and maybe not heal the cancer, but heal their heart and soul if only for a short while. It would have been a resting place and refuge to help him through his battle with treatments. Now that he has passed, his story can be one of many stories represented in Spirit Gardens to encourage others staying there to keep fighting, but to learn to live their lives in happiness. Throughout my time in Arizona during his last few days up until his funeral, I witnessed my inspiration for Spirit Gardens. The first sighting of a butterfly came before my grandpa had passed. The first was a dying single monarch butterfly lying on the ground in front of my feet right across the street from my Nana and Grandpa’s home, that I felt was a representation of my grandpa in his last few hours of life. Shortly after, I was taking a walk and right there on the front page of the newspaper (which had my grandpa’s obituary inscribed in it) was a picture of a monarch butterfly flying. The next day, my aunt received an email from a distant cousin which writes, “I want to tell you this story. Mind you the temperature is turning cooler and to see butterflies this time of year is not a common sight. This last Saturday there was a Monarch butterfly (only one) who kept flying around and landing on my butterfly bush. Rick, Deb, and I were standing close to these bushes and all of us saw the butterfly, even my dog Ginger saw it and tried to chase it. On Sunday, Deb and I took fall flowers up to mom and dad’s grave to decorate if. As we were leaving, a lone Monarch butterfly came from mom and dad’s grave area and fluttered past us as we were in the van. Later that day, I was standing outside and a lone Monarch butterfly was fluttering around the butterfly bushes again. Suddenly a second Monarch butterfly joined the first one and both went higher and higher into the sky, fluttering, tumbling, and playing until I could no longer see either of them. In my mind, I saw this as your dad and my dad joined once again in heaven and playing like they had when they were young boys”. A few weeks passed, and I was running along the levy in New Orleans on Thanksgiving Day where right in front of me, was another dying Monarch butterfly that I imagined was him saying Happy Thanksgiving. Lastly, the next day, I ran along the same path, overlooking the Lake Pontchartrain and once again, in my path, was a lone Monarch; however this one was already dead. After this, I decided that butterflies were going to be my main inspiration for design at Spirit Gardens.