Community plants memorial garden

The Meyer family and friends planted a poignant reminder of a beloved son, brother and friend as the Joel Meyer Memorial Living Garden took shape.

The garden was planted on Saturday, September 10, adjacent to Tony and Mary Allison Meyer’s XPress Printing on Hood Avenue, in honor of their 21-year-old son Joel, who was killed in an accident at Lake Shasta last Memorial Day weekend.

Surrounding the XPress Printing building, and including a few feet of land donated by Les Schwab Taylor Tire Center, the garden is a place of healing for Mary Allison especially.

“I started visualizing what I wanted, and people would come to offer help, and would give plants,” she said. “I love that I found places for everything.”

The project was a way for all dear to the family to work through some grief, which seems just as sharp now as when the accident occurred.

There are trees, shrubs and flowers — and with the help of some talented master gardeners and plenty of folk on the ends of shovels, the bulk of the garden was planted by lunchtime.

A metal archway on the southeast side of the building graces the entrance to the garden, and a pathway of white granite meanders through the plants.

There is a story to those slabs of granite, according to Mary Allison.

She knew she wanted white stone to make the path, and one day as she searched a stoneyard, her eye was caught by the glint of white. At that particular yard, the stone is marked with the name of the quarry and the person who stacked it. The pallet she was looking at had the name “Joel” on it.

The garden is available to anyone who wishes to rest a while and remember Joel.