Children’s Memorial Garden
The garden was designed, built and dedicated to the memory of the children of the First United Methodist Church in Franklin, TN. Our garden has now been added to the National Registry of Children’s Memorial Gardens as of July 2004. As we invite all to participate in communion, we invite all to visit and enjoy our Children’s Memorial Garden. We hope it touches your heart as it has strengthened ours.
In 2004, Franklin First UMC, under the direction of Leon Jones, developed next to the Kenneday House along Church Street that would be dedicated to the Glory of God and the children He shared with us for a brief time. Names of the children are engraved on the paving bricks/stones around the fountain.
When the garden was dedicated, 19 children were remembered, including three sets of twins.
The walls are unfinished to signify the lives of our children that were also unfinished.
The cross vines planted near the arbor are native to Tennessee and if dissected, would show the appearance of the cross at the intersection of each leaf. The crosses in the picket fence are for the burdens we bear daily and the Rosemary plants are for remembrance. Dogwood trees are planted in the garden because of the legend that Jesus’ cross was made of Dogwood. The green grass speaks from the 23rd Psalm and the Lenten or Christmas roses outside the stonewall bloom from Christmas through Easter. And last, the rusty leaning stone cross is a symbol of God’s darkest hour in human history.
“And now in this peaceful place we may hear these children saying softly:
Don’t weep for me…
For I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am a diamond glint of snow.
I am the sunlight of ripened grain.
I am the gentle warm spring rain.
I am the quiet bird in swift flight.
I am the soft starshine of night.
Please do not cry…
I did not die…
Let the Holly tree and Maple weep for us.
- – Leon Jones, April 18, 2004
Go to this link to see a video from United Methodist Television of an interview with Leon Jones about the Children’s Memorial Garden: http://www.umtv.org/archives/garden_for_lost_children.htm
