When her son died, a woman turned to gardening. Now, she feeds her entire community
That question inspired the family to expand the garden, which Oli had loved, and share its goods with others.
By Alejandra Marquez Janse
Amy Isackson
NPR
May 22, 2022
Excerpt:
It wasn’t until a couple years later that the family returned to the idea of sharing their bounty. Though this time, it was rooted in grief.
In the fall of 2019, the family took Oli to the hospital for what they thought was a stomach bug. It turned out to be adrenal insufficiency, a condition that rarely happens in children.
“[It was] something that nobody had diagnosed or anticipated was happening with him, and so it was a complete shock to all of us that it happened, and sort of was something that was really diagnosed after he died,” Fournel said. “So he was here one day and then he wasn’t the next.” Oli was 8 years old.
“What enabled, I think, all of us – my husband and my oldest son and I – to survive those really hard early days was the fact that our community was so here for us,” she said. “People brought us food for months, people checked in all the time; and I was so struck by the ways in which a community, both people that I knew but also strangers, just lifted us up.”
While grieving their loss, the family realized they needed something to keep their hands and minds busy.
