Residents of the Heritage Life Personal Care Home (HLPCH) in Niverville received a special gift on August 23 as the facility’s new Memory Garden was unveiled.
Accompanying PCH residents for the ribbon cutting ceremony were MP Ted Falk, Memory Garden committee members, as well as the wide variety of donors who made the project possible.
The unveiling ceremony also coincided with the tenth anniversary of the HLPCH.
The Memory Garden is a multisensory tactile garden specially designed with aging seniors in mind.
Features include an arbour surrounded by herb and butterfly gardens, a fountain, and a putting green. Paintings by local seniors are scattered throughout a vast variety of plants and flowers, and an imported xylophone and drum set encourage residents to explore their musical abilities.
Nearby, a hand-crafted metal tree stands tall, showcasing the various donors that made it all possible. Local business Fusion Industries was commissioned for this piece of art.
Members of the three-person Memory Garden committee include Shirley Hoult of Communities in Bloom, Annette Fast, and Bonny Friesen, resource coordinator for the HLPCH.
Some of the leading donors behind the $115,000 project include the Niverville Health and Community Foundation and Niverville Heritage Holdings Inc. (NHHI).
“This project represents our community’s commitment to the residents of the personal care home,” said Anne Eastman, board member of the NHHI. “The garden plays a major part in their health and wellbeing. It helps to maintain all of their sensory functions from vision to hearing to smell, touch and taste.”
MP Ted Falk also addressed the many gathered for the auspicious event.
“I’m delighted that the federal government through their New Horizons for Seniors program was able to provide $25,000 towards the completion of this project,” he told the gathered crowd.
HLPCH director, Shelly Mall, says that the garden has already proven its worth. A new resident who was experiencing reticence over their move into the facility felt a distinct sense of calm as they toured the new garden space.
Fast says the memory garden dream began in 2021 upon the passing of resident Fred Kaita, an avid horticulturalist and community champion. Before his passing, he left his first legacy to the local seniors by creating the Norman Wittick rose garden on the grounds of the HLPCH.
Donations poured in upon Kaita’s passing and the Memory Garden project was born.
Fast became involved in the committee due to her own love of horticulture, but she was also inspired by her mother, who lived at the HLPCH at the time. Fast witnessed firsthand the hardships posed on care home residents and their loved ones during the pandemic years.
Unfortunately, her mother never lived to see the unveiling of the Memory Garden.
“We saw the need to have something a little bit more special here during COVID because it was just devastating for families and for the residents that they could not go anywhere,” says Fast.
Along with grants and foundation funders, an impressive array of individuals donated both financially and physically to bring the project to life.
The HLPCH Memory Garden, as unique and special as it is, is not open to the public. This little piece of heaven is here for the HLPCH residents and the loved ones who come to call.
