Hines VA Staff, Veterans lay Memorial Garden’s first stones
It was a thoughtful ceremony. Hines VA employees, some Veterans, and a special guest laid the first stones in a Memorial Stone Garden located near the Winter Garden May 26, 2022, in dedication to recently passed Veterans who received their care here at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital.
The project began in 2019 when Steven Smith and Tiffany Luzadder, both Veterans and Hines VA employees who work with the Coping with Cancer Group as peer support specialists, sought a way to honor and grieve for a Veteran from their group who passed from cancer.
“It was hard to grieve the loss of the Veteran,” Smith said. “We had become close to him, and he passed very quickly.”
Smith said it was the first time he had lost someone he was caring for in his compacity as a peer support specialist. So, together with Luzadder, Smith decided to create a space for employees, Veterans, and their families to honor those Veterans who passed away while receiving their care here. The pair said they had built strong bonds with the Veterans, and, after seeking guidance from mental health services at Hines VA and the Palliative Care Team, the idea for the garden grew.
One of the first Veterans whose stone was laid at the Memorial’s dedication was Army Veteran Thomas Luzadder who passed in 2019. The stones are handwritten with each Veterans name, branch of service and the date of the Veteran’s passing.
“I can no longer talk to [my uncle] on the phone or physically see him, but I am able to go to a place where I am able to remember him,” Luzadder said.
Judy Sheridan, whose husband Robert Sheridan received his care here and passed in June of 2021, attended the ceremony. She laid his rock in the Memorial Garden.
“The people here are wonderful,” Sheridan said. “They just are so wonderful. Those two [Smith and Luzadder] were such a good support for us. It means a lot that they remember.”
Sheridan said Smith and Luzadder still keep in contact with her even though her husband Robert, a Vietnam Veteran, passed a year ago. She hopes to volunteer here and credits the Hines VA staff for her desire to give back to Veterans like her husband.
The ceremony ended with TAPS, a hand salute by those in attendance and a moment of silence and reflection. The peer support specialist team is already working on making the garden a permanent fixture of Hines VA with a wooden memorial to replace the temporary marking, and future dates already marked to honor more Veterans whose presence here left a lifelong impact on all who cared for them.
For more information about the Memorial Stone Garden or interested in honoring a Veteran in the garden, contact Steven Smith at steven.smith14985e@va.gov.