'Honoured and humbled': Final daffodil planting at Dartmouth, N.S., garden for cancer survivors

The Daffodil Garden for Cancer Survivors drew a crowd to Ferry Terminal Park in Dartmouth, N.S., for its final daffodil planting Saturday.

This is the fourth and final year that Judie and Jim Edgar, the couple who co-founded the garden, will plant new flowers.

“Basically, we are running out of space,” said Judie. “To date there have been 39,000 daffodil bulbs that have been planted and they do multiply so it will be far more than that.’

Judie and Jim Edgar are both cancer survivors. They said when they co-founded the garden in 2020, its purpose was to bring hope to the community.

“I mean we just try to make a difference in our little corner of the world and go from there. We are not looking for praise or any accolades of any kind. People keep telling us it's our legacy. We don't look at it as a legacy. We just see it as making a difference in other’s lives,” Jim said.

Judie said they chose daffodils because they represent hope.

Jamie Aalders is a Cole Harbour, N.S., resident who attended the final planting. He said the event was “awesome.”

“Just the amount of people here is fantastic,” Aalders said. “And just listening to everyone talk about why it's important to them.”

The numbers in the garden are also impressive.

“This spring we probably planted about 1,400 or 1,500,” said Jim.

Then more again in the fall.

Jack Devenney has been planting daffodils alongside the Edgars since they started the garden four years ago. He said he has planted hundreds of daffodils.

“I’m also a cancer survivor so this fits in with what I believe in,” says Devenney.

Katharine Kieser is an oncologist who attended the event at the daffodil garden. She said it is important for her patients to have parks like these.

“Both as a care provider and somebody who is involved in the community – and anybody in the community that has been touched by cancer themselves – I think a park like this is absolutely vital,” said Kieser.

The garden was founded for cancer survivors, but others chose it as a place to plant memories of lost loved ones.

“My mom passed away when I was 25 from breast cancer,” said Trish Purdy, who was in attendance at the planting. “All of us have a story of losing someone that we love to cancer and it's kind of what brings folks together.”

Judie and Jim said it is an emotional day, but they are proud of how far their garden has come and they are grateful to those who have helped or planted. They said they are honoured and humbled.

“Jim says it was time to put a bow on it,” Judie said. “Even though the garden opened up in 2020, there were many years before that, the planning stage – closed doors and up and down journeys. We’ve given all we can to this place, and we walk away quite proud.”

The Edgars said their work will continue to give when yellow daffodils bloom along Alderney Drive.

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