In 1998, my husband David Madeira and I bought a dilapidated bungalow in Media, Pennsylvania. Until the 1700s, the site was inhabited by the Lenape. In the early 1920’s, it was a recreational retreat for African-American communities. When we arrived, apart from the massive oak trees, it was a scruffy corner lot. As I stood under one of the ancient oaks, as she was thriving by virtue of neglect, For me, this place was sacred.
For almost 30 years, I garden, paint and work with clay here. Plates, tiles, ceramic sculpture and tile murals of life-sentenced women, all with narrative, mingle throughout the garden.
Apart from paint and clay, I always remember being curious about forgiveness. This preoccupation intensified when I painted and recorded life-sentenced prisoners directly in state correctional institutions in Pennsylvania. In the early 1990's, I watched the Board of Pardons live, driving to Harrisburg, monthly, over the period of one year. Immediately after each session, I drove to SCI Muncy to report to the women sentenced to life without parole. Sharon Wiggins and Cyd Berger were among the women whose pleas were refused that year, yet again. Sharon Wiggins died in prison, initially on death row at the age of seventeen for two and a half years. She applied thirteen times. Cyd Berger is applying this year for the ninth time, having endured prison for over forty five years.
Today the Board of Pardons meet online. Some on the Board don't show their faces, even as hopeful loved ones of the person asking for pardon watch them deliberate.
The Pardon Garden is a couple of minutes walking distance away from the Elwyn Train Station on the Media/WaWa train line south out of Philadelphia. It's easily accessible, by appointment. This train runs next to Swarthmore College, the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University.
A stroll in silence through this garden might make space to consider how urgent it is to develop the skill to practice the profound, mysterious and crucial act of pardoning.