Gardens of hope

Janice Jacobs sits in a rocking chair on her front porch, watching the volunteers and plants arrive.

She's handed identification tags from the plants, with pictures of the blooms they soon will bear: pale pink camellias, blood-orange Carolina woodbine, blue hydrangea.

"This feels like Christmas," she says. "It's going to be gorgeous. I just can't hardly stand it."

Jacobs is the second person to receive a garden from Simply Divine Garden, a new nonprofit that will plant an indoor or outdoor garden for people undergoing cancer treatments.

Darcy Whalen of Johns Island started the organization after her mother died of breast cancer.

Whalen says her mother worked long hours as a college president and was looking forward to retirement so she could spend more time in her garden.

But shortly after she left her job, breast cancer took her life, and she didn't get those days in the garden she had hoped for.

Now, Whalen wants to give the gift of a garden to other cancer patients.

"It's something for them to enjoy, and hopefully it will make them feel better and give them that hope and inspiration to keep fighting," Whalen said.

She closed her King Street home and garden store in November to work full time on creating the nonprofit.

With the help of the Web, she taught herself how to fill out the lengthy 501(c)3 application and then how to build a Web site. She created a board of directors, made up of two female friends and her daughter. Next on Whalen's to-do list is learning how to write grant applications.

The retail value of the gardens ranges from $500 to $1,500. While everything for the first garden was donated, Whalen had to purchase many of the plants for the second.

Whalen, the organization's executive director, isn't receiving a salary but is making ends meet with the help of family and friends. She predicts she'll be out of money in two to three months.

Nineteen people have requested gardens so far, with the majority learning about Simply Divine Garden through the Hollings Cancer Center, Whalen said. They range from a man in Hollywood who wants a flower garden to a woman in Bonneau who asked for a vegetable garden. The organization will maintain the gardens for a year if the recipients can't.

Whalen's goal is to create 36 gardens this year.

She has a list of nearly 40 volunteers to help, including Misty Grooms, who had never gardened before.

Grooms, who works in an office and lives in a yardless townhome, said she liked the idea of getting her hands dirty and enjoying some sun while helping others.

"Everyone needs their own little spot to sit and enjoy," Grooms said. "And when you're going through something like chemotherapy, having something beautiful to look at can remind you how wonderful it is to be alive. I think it's kind of a solace for them."

Joining Grooms and the other 10 volunteers Saturday was Christophe Drumain, a partner at DesignWorks, who donated the plan for Jacobs' garden. He also donated plants, a bird bath and concrete pavers for a bench.

He said he chose a low-maintenance design that would provide beauty and color sooner rather than later because Jacobs needs it now.

Drumain was moved to help. His father and grandmother died of cancer, and his best friend is battling the disease. He has seen that when people are going through chemo, they don't have the time or energy to care for things such as their environment.

"Having a yard that looks good where you can sit down and rest ... is wonderful," Drumain said. "People forget your environment really makes a big difference in how you feel about yourself."

Jacobs watches most of the action Saturday from her rocking chair. Exhaustion forces her to leave the porch for a few minutes to lie down.

She is undergoing chemotherapy for the third time to treat multiple myeloma. Around the time she found out the cancer had come back, her daughter, Jessie Jacobs, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

It was Jessie Jacobs who contacted Simply Divine Garden on her mother's behalf. She said it's been a depressing time for her mother, and she wanted to give her a boost, something joyous to look forward to.

At the end of the day as the volunteers begin to pack up their tools, Janice Jacobs descends the porch stairs with the help of a pink cane to get a closer look at her new garden, nestled under the limbs of a live oak. She scans the coral impatiens, peach hibiscus and lime green hostas.

It brings her — and her daughter and Whalen — to tears.

"It's beautiful," she says quietly. "It's just so beautiful."

Reach Kristen Hankla at 937-5548 or khankla@postandcourier.com.