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It's time to seed Garden of
Peace The Boston Sunday Globe Peace is not a word that Evelyn Tobin uses lightly. Her own acquaintance with serenity is too fragile for that. In the months after her daughter was murdered in Lexington in 1992, she wondered whether she wanted to live at all. The ministrations of her sons and grandchildren were a salve but no cure for having her only daughter, Kathleen Dempsey, stabbed to death in the yellow bungalow she rented on a wooded street in a quiet, suburban neighborhood. Losing a child to homicide is one of life's lonelier experiences. Tobin felt cursed, she says, as though she carried some contagion that caused others- even those who loved her- to recoil in her presence. The very middle-class, ordinariness of her life frightened friends who could only conclude that if such a tragedy could strike Tobin's family, it could easily touch their own. Tobin is a member of an exclusive club no one wants to join. This select group has spent years planning a public memorial to victims of homicide, their names too easily forgotten by all but those who loved them. Former governor William F. Weld Agreed to locate the garden on the wind-swept plaza at the Saltonstall building on Cambridge Street. But in 1998 the 22-story state office tower was closed and its 2,000 state employees relocated because of asbestos contamination. For two years the Garden of Peace has lived only on paper. No longer. Last week, Governor Paul Cellucci selected the Mass Development Finance Agency for the $140 million Saltonstall renovation project. The quasi-public state authority promised a reconfigured site will include retail shops, residential condominiums and the Garden of Peace that Tobin and so many others have long envisioned. Alone among the five bidders, Mass Development pledged to build the garden and to contribute $200,000 toward its $600,000 construction cost, the rest to be raised through foundations and individual donations. All that stands in the way of the Garden of Peace now is a formal vote by the Legislature approving Cellucci's choice of developer. Aware of but unschooled in the art of Beacon Hill deal-making, Tobin and the families of the other homicide victims worry the garden could get lost in the rush toward adjournment at month's end. Fearing that such headline-grabbing issues as a new Fenway Park will consume lawmaker's attention, the group will visit every legislator tomorrow, urging prompt action on the Saltonstall renovation plan. "There should be no hesitation," says Attorney General Thomas Reilly, an early and ardent supporter of the memorial. "We can never forget that people still suffer the devastating effects of homicide. We all need a reminder, as we go about our business on Beacon Hill, to work to end violence." The Garden of Peace is designed as a riverbed, with the names of the slain on rocks that lead to a deep pool. Rising from the water will be a bronze sculpture by Judy Kinsley McKee called "Ibis Ascending", meant to convey solace and hope. The garden is also grounded in reality, designed to accommodate the inevitable additions of rocks, carved with the names of fresh victims. "The idea was to have it be a place of quiet contemplation but also a public gathering place. The Jane Doe Safety Fund Walk[for domestic violence victims] could begin there. Rallies could be held there," says McKie, whose own son Jesse, was stabbed to death for his leather jacket. "I believe every parent who loses a child to violence goes through the process of trying to figure out what he can do to effect change so that this will never happen again to anyone." Evelyn Tobin did. Her daughter's murder and Tobin's resolve were the catalysts for the enhanced emergency response system in Massachusetts. Kathy's 911 call for help initially was dismissed as a prank. Five hours later, another dispatcher reviewed the tape and sent help. By then, the 31- year old graphic designer was dead. Her killer has not been caught. "I made a conscious decision to live. Once you make that decision,
you have to ask yourself, 'What's my life going to mean?' For me,
this garden is a way to bear witness that homicide happens, that
it happens to the person you pass on the street who looks just like
you, that it could happen in your life, too."
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