The community garden established behind Sentara Obici Hospital will honor Sydni Connally, who worked as a registered nurse in the hospital’s cardiac rehabilitation department. Sydni tragically died on January 13, 2012, of a massive pulmonary embolism, a day after losing a newborn child. The garden has been built in her honor in a small field behind the Growing Up at Obici daycare center, where her 3-year-old son Jack attends school.

Sydni Connally loved gardens. She kept gardens at her home, and was active in the Suffolk Partnership for a Healthy Community’s garden project. The community garden at Sentara Obici Hospital will honor her life. In the ground under one of the new plant beds is a small bag with bits of fabric from Sydni’s nurse uniform, along with other memories of her life.

This new community garden will be dedicated as “Syndi’s Sanctuary,” and is intended to be a place for visitors to enjoy nature. It will also be functional in promoting healthy nutrition to the children of the daycare, and for cancer patients of the hospital. The children will learn how to grow healthy food and about healthy eating. The garden will also help cancer patients, who during and after treatment are encouraged to maintain nutrition so they can maintain their strength.

Check out the garden video below.