Sharp shadows cut across the withering vegetable plants, wildflowers, and herbs gone to seed Sunday at Edna White Memorial Garden in Chicago’s Morgan Park neighborhood. Amid Catrinas — skeleton figures wearing elaborate gowns and flowered head coverings — a bonfire crackled with burning cedar.
Australia Moore searched a shrine of laminated photos posted on a yellow garden shed. “I lost my best friend,” she told her pastor, Ben Heimach-Snipes, of Morgan Park Presbyterian Church. He stood nearby, having delivered a benediction.
When Moore found the picture of Candace Bradley, her eyes crinkled slightly. Behind a blue surgical mask, she was smiling.
Moore was among 50 or so residents from the Morgan Park and Beverly neighborhoods who found comfort at “Celebration of Life,” a Day of the Dead-style observance aimed at helping people honor deceased loved ones.
“With COVID-19, many people haven’t been able to have regular funeral services,” said Kathy Figel, president of Edna Memorial White Garden, 1850 W. Monterey. “They haven’t had the opportunity to come to terms with their grief and been able to move on.”
Wanting to help, Figel looked to the Mexican Día de los Muertos tradition of creating ofrendas — shrines honoring deceased family members. For the garden’s ofrenda, she encouraged 500-plus members of the Edna White Memorial Garden Group’s Facebook page to email photos of their loved ones along with modest donations.
“A community garden can be a healing place for prayer and meditation,” she said. “Having an ofrenda here tells people that community can be family too.” In all, the community alter, which remains in place through November, raised $300 for the garden, Figel said.
Garrett Degnan came looking for a photo of his father who passed away in April.
“He was a popular guy, so there would have been a lot of people at his funeral if not for the pandemic,” Degnan said. “It’s like he got robbed of his big going-away.”
Degnan also noted the passing of two additional older family members. But, despite the loss, he seemed happy to be out for the day with his girlfriend, daughter and mother, Kathleen Degnan.
“I realize that it’s the natural order of things for people to pass on and for younger generations to come,” she said, “but you just miss them and want to hold on. This helps.”
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Among the posted photos were several cherished Beverly and Morgan Park personalities: Marty McGarry, a beloved boxing coach and Golden Gloves champion, Lendon Sadler, a local artist, and Sandra Bianciotta, a popular Realtor.
Bianciotta’s widower, Tom Bianciotta, came with friends Diane Sullivan, who was there to remember her husband, and Sandra McShane who came to remember her father, a firefighter. Richard Colby appeared in an iconic photo, standing next to a Chicago fire truck emblazoned with the number 34.
McShane was also remembering her brother-in-law Craig McShane, a Chicago firefighter who in 1981 died at 23, fighting a blaze in a downtown high-rise.
Like the Degnan family, the three friends wore masks, observed social distancing, and seemed to appreciate the chance to gather outdoors and remember.
Along with those coming to pay their respects were volunteers and others who added their own unique touches to the celebration.
Teresa Casasola created two life-size Catrinas that set the tone for the event. La Calavera Catrina, the Mexican grand dame of the afterlife, is charged with protecting deceased loved ones. With gaiety and celebration, she also helps those who remain behind accept the inevitability of death.
To raise additional funds for the garden, Casasola and her daughter, Anna Knicker, sold sugar cookies they baked and decorated to resemble skull-shaped confections called Alfeñiques.
“You have to have patience and talent to do this, to do these lines and designs,” Casasola said, proud of her daughter’s assistance. “I’m glad I convinced her to help.”
Wearing flowers, feathers and expertly applied makeup, Pam Holt, dressed as a Catrina. “I feel it’s important to give full credit to how healthy the Latin community is about accepting death,” she said. “It should be more about celebrating the end of life as part of the whole circle of life.”
Driving home the point that death is universal and crosses all cultures, she teamed up with her goddaughter, Rose Rita James, who dressed as The Morrigan, a Celtic goddess of death. Both wore elaborate hats topped by black crows, symbols of death.
“We made our costumes separately, but we’re not at all surprised how they turned out,” James said. “She’s my godmother, my mutual influencer.”
James wasn’t the only non-Mexican influence at the celebration. Early on, a man dressed in a kilt had played the bagpipes.
Among the many familiar faces posted on the shed, visitors also found Edna White, a Quaker, neighborhood activist and Morgan Park Garden Club member, for whom the garden is named.
Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.