By GARY PULEO Times Herald Staff
WEST NORRITON —
The memory garden will
need plenty of rain to thrive. But not today. Not when so many people who hold
tightly to the belief that life flowers eternally, as they dig past their
despair and into the dirt, are planning a long overdue dedication.
Not when the tulips and
the cherry tree and the roots of whatever
else will eventually be planted
here will finally be inscribed with a purpose.
"The rain will be
stopping," an optimistic Sandy McCarraher predicted
just two hours before the scheduled 2 p.m. Sunday
ceremony around the flagpole at Norristown Area High School. And so it did. Glowering
clouds nudged one another aside long enough for the laggard sun to break in,
only to return with renewed vengeance moments later.
As the American flag
above the crowd of a hundred or so people rippled in the wind against
indecisive skies, McCarraher, president
of the Norristown High School Alumni Association,
sponsors of the memorial, told the story of the little abandoned garden.
It was started back in 1984,
a gift from the DECA club as a tribute to past president and 1983 graduate Mark Signore, who had
died the year before.
With the soil turned, a
plaque prominently placed into position, and a small shrub transplanted, things
looked promising for the small patch of land.
But gardens need care,
and this one was allowed to succumb to
rampant disorder. Without the needed attention, weeds quickly took over. The
bloom was off the idea for many years to follow.
"This garden lost
its beauty, but never it's hope," McCarraher said.
It takes a deeply
shaded set of rose-colored glasses to look at a jungle and envision a woodland,
but the alumni association saw the potential last year, and now the garden is
enjoying a rebirth, a fresh round of interest and peat moss.
A new plaque expands
its original assignment, with the words "Memory garden - dedicated to
those who embraced the spirit of N.A.H.S."
Blue and white pansies exult the school colors as they sprawl toward the new monument that bears the names
of the six remembered: Signore; retired guidance counselor and teacher Paul Rehrig; softball coach
Anthony "Chic" Chiccino; science teachers Paul Rohrbach and Dorothea Roth;
and class of 2002 member Robert Natalini, who died in March.
McCarraher and alumni member landscape designer Doug Gabel (class
of 1969) ultimately envision a park-like
setting.
"People can donate
money, trees, shrubs, or flowers, and it doesn't
have to be in memory of someone. If they'd just like to help us with the
garden, that's fine," McCarraher said. "It may turn into a 15-year project, but it's
going to become a woodland, an area with benches, where people can walk and
appreciate nature."
On Sunday, Principal Hildy Jaffe thanked the
alumni "for not only using their artistic and gardening expertise, but
also their elbow grease. Without that we wouldn't
have what you see today."
Kenneth Brown, class of
1928, drew upon his years of oratorical powers to inject a bit of levity into
the day before his words took a more somber turn.
"They asked me to
speak for three to five minutes. When I was pastor of a church I would tell
people, 'You may tell me when to start but try to
tell me when to stop,'" he laughed. "But
I think that's a good idea, because we preachers have a bad habit of not
knowing when to finish.
"One of the best kept secrets in
Montgomery County is the excellent school district we have here,"
he added, " and we are here to dedicate this garden of memory to six
people ... hoping that the spirit that they showed
will continue in the young men and women
who will graduate from here. The garden is a great beginning, with
greater things still to come."
Teacher Rosemary Zummo read a poem that likened those left behind as
caretakers of the garden: "They must nurture in the memory / The fallen
flowers."
The family and friends
of the inductees followed with brief reminiscences and personalized expressions
of gratitude.
Kristen Rehrig, Paul Rehrig's
daughter, noted that "I believe that our loved ones are around us always.
We just need to look for them."
Paul Rohrbach's widow, Karen,
told the crowd how she first met her husband at Eisenhower
Middle School.
Robert Natalini's sister Amanda
was pleased that her brother's short life would be remembered through nature.
Whitehall
Elementary School James McCarthy honored his friend Chiccino by saying
"While
death is never welcome, we are at least prepared for it with a person of
advanced years.
Therefore,
for some of us today, we are doubly devastated when it happens to someone like
Rob or Chic."
Dorothea Roth's
daughters, Alice Alien and Anne
Walker, smiled as they quietly told the crowd, "Our mother loved flowers,
and I'm sure that no matter where she is, she's smiling right now."
Gary Puleo can be reached at:
or at
610-272-2500, ext.
207.