A place for memories opens at the Vashon Havurah

Islanders have a new way to commemorate loved ones and cherished memories, thanks to a “memory garden” recently installed at the Vashon Havurah.

The installation is a place where islanders can place a brick marking anything meaningful to them — such as a loved one or a cherished memory. It has room so far for 200 more memory bricks.

The idea began as islander Amy Greenberg and her late husband Chris Robison were walking along the path to the labyrinth at Vashon’s Episcopal Church of The Holy Spirit in the fall of 2018.

Robison, an ardent scholar and volunteer for island organizations, would die two months later from cancer. He had just started hospice care but was still able to get around, Greenberg said, and as he noticed the many memorial markers in the church cemetery, he remarked: “I could have one of these.”

Though the couple weren’t connected to the church, the idea stuck. After Robison died in November that year, Greenberg — who is Jewish — asked the Havurah’s board to earmark donations in Robison’s name for a similar project — a “memory garden” — at the Havurah.

The project has been about five years in the making, but the garden is now finished and open to the public.

Sales of the bricks raise funds for the Havurah’s operations. Anyone can order a brick by visiting 4everbricks.com/donors/vh. Prices begin at $180 for a 4” by 8” brick, or $360 for an 8” by 8” brick.

The garden is “a sweet, loving project, a way to honor loved ones we have lost and to celebrate important life events,” Havurah secretary Alice Bloch said in an email. “My personal hope is that it will be a welcoming space for Vashonites to visit, sit quietly, meditate, and find solace or inspiration.

Some bricks commemorate people who have lived and died. Others mark weddings. And a couple just have the name of someone living who is deeply loved.

“The one that I put in there for Chris was (based on) one of the last things he said to me,” Greenberg said. “He said: ‘Love. That’s all there is.’ “

So she wrote “Love,” drew a heart, and added Robison’s name and birth and death dates.

Peter Rubin, a Havurah member and retired architect, designed the garden, featuring a river rock bed that creates the visage of a yin-yang symbol. The design is shaped into six points, the same as the number of points in the Star of David.

And the garden was installed by Vancouver, Washington landscaper Chris Robison (who isn’t related to, but is named after, Greenberg’s husband), who did a “phenomenal job,” Greenberg said.

“When (landscaper) Chris finished the project and I was there, I really felt my Chris’ presence,” Greenberg said. “He would absolutely love it. … It’s a permanent reminder for the Vashon community of anything that people want to be reminded of. … I’m not the kind of person that goes to a cemetery once I’ve been there for someone to be buried. But I will go back to this place. And I will sit there on the bench and enjoy the sunset.”

The garden also features a memorial bench for Robison by island woodworker artist Hans Nelsen and island blacksmith artist Shannon Buckner.

The Havurah has raised around $7,000 from brick purchases, Bloch said.

The Memory Garden will be officially unveiled at the Havurah’s annual family-friendly party/fundraiser. It takes place from 4 to 8 p.m. on August 18, with food from Seattle deli Dingfelder’s and music by Croaker. The Havurah will also hold a drawing for tickets to the musical “Hamilton,” and a silent auction. Tickets are $50 each (free for children 10 and under) and on sale now at tinyurl.com/HavurahFundraiser.

A previous version of this story imprecisely described the Memorial Garden at Vashon’s Episcopal Church of The Holy Spirit. It has been clarified.