By Susan Shinn
Salisbury Post
ENOCHVILLE ó A new prayer garden encompasses the space where a dying oak once stood, with the promise of a breathtaking view come spring.
Plants and flowers now grow where nothing seemed to take root before.
The prayer garden is meant to be a place of solitude, tranquility and meditation for members of St. Enoch Lutheran Church and members of the Enochville community.
“It’s a place to commune with nature and God, the creator,” says the Rev. John Mark Beam, St. Enoch’s pastor.
The prayer garden is a memorial to one of the church’s most beloved members, Sherry Bost, who died Oct. 27, 2007, following a long struggle with cancer.
Her sister and only sibling, Debbie Smith, took the lead in the garden’s planning and execution. Their parents are Lee and Geraldine Smith.
“I think its beautiful,” Lee Smith says. “It surpasses anything I had envisioned.”
Bost’s husband of 35 years agrees.
“This is so much grander than I could have ever imagined,” Don Bost says. “It just turned out so well. It’s just been a good thing for the church.”
Although Bost wasn’t particularly a green thumb, her husband says, she did love the outdoors.
“She just loved the church,” Don Bost says. “She was just a part of this church in so many ways.
“This is something she would be proud of for our church.”
Two round stones embedded in the walkway read: “Dedicated to the loving memory and giving spirit of Sherry Bost.”
“She was caring and compassionate, but also very realistic,” Beam says. “She was not mushy and gooey. She was a very wise person.”
Although Bost was diagnosed before Beam arrived nine years ago, he remembers her as vibrant and active. She attended choir practice on the Wednesday before she died on Saturday, he says.
The couple were longtime educators. Bost taught exceptional children before retiring as a guidance counselor from Knollwood Elementary. Her husband spent his career at China Grove Middle School, retiring as principal.
The Bosts have two daughters, Meredith Bost and Melissa Morris, both teachers, and two grandsons.
Don Bost likes the fact that the prayer garden is just beside the church’s front door, that it’s handicapped-accessible and that it will be accessible to everyone ó not just church members.
The garden was designed by Gray Troxler of Tesh-Troxler Landscape Designs in Concord. It’s about 30 feet by 40 feet in size.
It features Knockout roses, crape myrtles, a magnolia tree and Japanese maple, black-eyed Susans and other low-maintenance plants. In the center is an arbor, which will be covered eventually by five-leaf akebia vines planted on each of its four posts.
Smith came up with the idea for the prayer garden on the day her sister was buried.
“The price was quite overwhelming,” she admits. She knew the project would have to wait.
The family established the Sherry Bost Memorial Fund, and then a prayer garden fund from that.
“The money just came,” Smith says.
By summer, Smith was able to move forward with her plans.
Smith ran across an invitation to a prayer garden in the Mitford books by Jan Karon. She knew her sister loved the series ó she often laughed aloud while reading them ó and she knew the words would be perfect for the garden.
A large stone in front of the arbor is etched with these words: “Let the peace of this place surround you as you sit or kneel quietly. Let the hurry and worry of your life fall away. You are God’s child. He loves you and cares for you now and always. Speak to him thoughtfully. Give yourself time for him to bring things to mind.”
Jason Delano of All-Stone, a division of Enochville Materials ó just a couple of blocks away ó did the stonework.
“I’m very, very proud of it,” Smith says of the prayer garden. “It was so fitting to honor Sherry with a prayer garden. Her life was so beautiful. She was always giving to people.”
Lee Smith echoes his younger daughter’s sentiments.
“Sherry had a strong faith,” he says. “She was so dedicated to her family, her church and her work.”