Mitchell House’s Garden of Remembrance

To everything there is a season, a time to be born and a time to die.
Mitchell House opened a Garden of Remembrance for all educators, learners and co-workers who have died since the school was established in 1994.
The Parents’ Association initiated the project and the garden, dedicated to all who passed away while they were part of the Mitchell House family, was officially opened on Friday. Many parents and family members of those who were remembered attended the opening ceremony.
Andrew Cook, Principal of Mitchell House explained the symbolism of the central feature, a fountain, the water as well as the cosmos flowers planted in the garden. He said the Garden of Remembrance is centrally situated and not placed in some obscure corner as those who passed away remain part of the lives of the living who will always remember them. The water that flows through the fountain is symbolic of those who have flown through their lives and of the Living Water. The cosmos he said, is a simple flower, but beautiful, now here and then gone, a symbol of how transitory life on earth is. He said one must capture all we can while living, and read from a poem by WH Auden titled ‘Stop all the clocks’
“He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.”
Cook said time passes and heals, but will never obliterate the loss.­

Story and photos: NELIE ERASMUS
>>nelie.observer@gmail.com

Featured photo: Nursery owner Lizzie Altenroxel, who helped to establish the garden, member of the Parents’ Association (PA)Safiya Sonpra, PA Chairperson Maylene Broderick and Mitchell House Principal Andrew Cook.