When Sarah Tevyaw was studying to be an art therapist, she never expected to be working in palliative care. She thought she’d end up in a community or clinical setting, the path that most of her peers would follow. But her program at Concordia University led her to an internship at the Montreal Chest Institute, working with palliative patients. Her passion for this grew and, in 2012, she sought a volunteer opportunity at the then West Island Palliative Care Residence—an instrumental pivot point for the direction her career would take. She has been at the Residence, now known as the Teresa Dellar Palliative Care Residence, since 2013. And her path has led her right into a garden—her own Growing with Grief program.
Developed by Sarah and launched this past June, Growing with Grief is a 10-week bereavement program that combines gardening with art therapy. “I like the idea of expressing grief through nature because it encompasses the notion that everything goes back to the earth,” she explains. “We cultivate growth—and there’s an acceptance that we don’t know how a garden will turn out.” Through Growing with Grief, Sarah is creating a metaphorical journey through loss and acceptance.
The program fits well into Sarah’s art therapy approach at the Residence, which involves something for everyone, patients and family members alike. There are textile arts such as knitting, crochet and sewing, including a large floor loom that can be taught in less than five minutes. This, in addition to a studio with materials for drawing, painting, collage, beads for jewelry-making and much more, means that Sarah can reach every imaginable desire for expression.
“I get to know the patients and look into my toolbox to see what works for them,” Sarah says. “Part of the beauty of the therapy I offer is the opportunity to create legacy art.” But those who are grieving the loss of a loved one benefit too. And the more Sarah thought about her programming, the more she felt gardening had a role to play.
“Gardening is an art. I’ve been able to develop a garden at my home with a variety of annuals, perennials and some vegetables,” she says. “And part of the experience with a garden is knowing that things will die. I wanted to build on the natural acceptance that comes at the outset of planting a garden.”
When the Residence expanded in 2020, Sarah asked for access to the grounds around it. The landscaping has undergone significant enhancements over the years, and there’s a path into a forest behind the Residence, a stream, and a fairy garden with hidden statues. And now there are raised beds made by her partner and neighbour with lumber donated from a local sawmill. A large gazebo is a central feature—and this is where participants meet.
“Some of the family members of the participants have died in the rooms facing the garden, so there’s a real peace here and a self-identified desire for these participants to give back and make the space surrounding the rooms even more beautiful.” She adds that one of the Residence’s current patients, whose room is beside the garden and art studio, has taken to tending the plants. Several times a day she can be found taking off the dead flowers and saving them to use in art-making. So there is a circular notion to the idea of the garden’s healing powers.
Although the Residence offers bereavement programs throughout the year, there has typically been no summer programming. According to Sarah, it’s difficult to get people to commit during the summer months because of vacationing and family time. “But COVID has made it easier—this was a way to break the isolation. With the world slowly opening up again, people want and need to connect. And because we are doing this outside, participants feel safe,” she explains. Masks and physical distancing are still in the mix for now, she points out. The number of participants was capped at 10, not just because of COVID, but also to achieve a certain intimacy.
The group meets every two weeks because, as Sarah says, “the garden needs time to grow.” Before starting the garden, Sarah planted seeds with patients: cucumber, tomato and zucchini plants grew in abundance—so much so the Residence staff had to bring some of the seedlings home. For this program, Sarah has purchased and planted different types of plants with no plan for how the flowers and vegetables should mix—and no thought yet about pest control and bringing in bees. She emphasizes that she doesn’t want to over plan. “This idea is that it will be a magical place that helps participants work through the grieving process,” she says.
In addition to gardening, the program incorporates art: drawing and other techniques including
print-making with plants and cyanotypes—a natural blueprint process using plant parts and sunshine. “The point is to spend time with the plants to appreciate their intricacies and how they’ve grown. I want the participants to see the process of growth as an analogy for their own process of grieving.”
Sarah’s idea for the program was in part inspired by novelist Margo Rabb’s 2019 New York Times opinion piece, “Garden of Solace,” in which the author explores how a magical public garden helped her process the passing of her mother, 25 years after the fact. Another inspiration was Allan Wolfelt's theories on "caregiver as gardener,'' developed largely through his work with grieving children. Although Sarah found material on grief and gardening, there were no documented studies. “There have been memorial gardens, but not a structured group process,” she says. “This is a pilot project. I am not sure how it will come together but it’s already got magic built right in. And it’s an opportunity for all of us at the Residence to keep on learning.”
For more information about the program, please visit https://residencesoinspalliatifs.com/en/
or call 514 693-1718, ext. 231.