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Garden Memorials on the Rise After 9/11, Sioux Falls Landscaper's "Pretty Amazing"

Sept. 25, 2002

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The crush of commercial and residential landscaping projects had Denny Thedans of Sioux Falls, S.D., working 12-14 hours a day every day even after Sept. 11, 2001. It wasn't until the frigid and windy South Dakota winter prevented him from working on his normal projects that the landscape foreman was able to start planning the garden memorial for his sister, Cheryle Thedans Sincock. Sincock, a Pentagon employee, was two windows away from where the nose of American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon building on Sept. 11.

Thedans anxiously waited for spring. He worked all day on weekends in April and May, in snow, sleet and rain, to complete the pool-sized garden memorial in his family's hometown cemetery in Avoca, Minn., 80 miles east of Sioux Falls. "I did everything except hauling the dirt," says Thedans. Sincock is buried in a cemetery in Virginia, where her husband, an army chief warrant officer, is from. "I wanted to build something to remember her here," says Thedans.

The memorial is surrounded by a retaining wall block and edging pavers. Sincock's favorite flora were hand-picked and planted by Thedans. There are spruce, Japanese Lilac and Hawthorn shrubs and trees. Isanti Dogwood, Day Lilies and Siberian Irises bloom in the spring. Four types of grasses - feathered seed, maiden, Blue Oak and flame - create a natural patchwork.

The centerpiece of the garden is a bronze-on-granite memorial. Carved on the 10 inches by 14 inches bronze plate that Thedans had custom-made is Sincock's name, "One of the Many Victims From The Attack on America," and the words "Fallen But Not Forgotten." The plate is mounted on a polished block of black India Mist granite that was sand-blasted with a sheaf of wheat, symbolizing growth and life, by Family Memorials by Gibson, a Sioux Falls memorial maker and design firm.

According to industry sources, more people, whether honoring loved ones from 9/11 or not, are building garden memorials. "It was a developing trend well before 9/11," says Mike Baklarz, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Cold Spring Granite Co., the country's largest granite quarrier and memorial manufacturer, "but it has accelerated since 9/11."

Baklarz says with less Americans traveling or going out as much, couples and families are investing more time and money on their homes, and in this case, memorial garden landscaping. "Families may also have loved ones buried in cemeteries, but also want to have something to remember them with memorials built at their homes and in their gardens."

Tony Gibson of Family Memorials by Gibson says, "We've had an increase in queries from people asking us about what type of granite memorials and monuments can be put on their property, but nothing compares to what Denny has done. It's pretty amazing."

Thedans has built a smaller garden memorial for an older brother who passed away five years ago and added spruce trees to his late father's less elaborate memorial. Thedans, who spends most of his time landscaping, says about Sincock's memorial, "I'm just glad I could do it. I didn't want my sister to be forgotten."

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For pictures of Thedans' garden memorial, contact Geoff Klaverkamp at (800) 450-3055 or geoff@russellherder.com. The Cold Spring Granite Co. is the world's largest, most diversified quarrier, manufacturer, designer, and distributor of granite and bronze memorial products.