We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with their loved ones yesterday. There is much to be thankful for and this year the Friends of the Prouty Garden feel especially thankful for the community and friendship we have found among those who love and support this garden.
We wanted to provide a brief update on Wednesday's injunction hearing. Unfortunately, the news is not what we were hoping. Judge Salinger declined to grant our request for a preliminary injunction, which would have effectively stopped any action by the hospital to proceed with construction or with the destruction of the Prouty Garden. The information that we have as of today is that the hospital has officially closed the garden and is planning to begin using it as a staging area for the construction project.
This is disheartening, to be sure. Especially coming just before the holidays, a time when so many at the hospital need the privacy and escape that only the Prouty Garden provides.
While we are disappointed, we are not surprised by this outcome. We have known all along that this effort has been a “David fighting Goliath” story. By all rights, we should have been defeated long ago and that hasn’t happened. We have made all possible moral, medical, business, and regulatory arguments but those arguments, by themselves, have been insufficient to decisively prove the case within the legal framework that exists here in Massachusetts – at least not yet. That’s not to say that they won’t in the future as this process plays itself out.
Looking ahead, there are a number of legal issues that are still pending. Soon, Judge Salinger will be ruling on the Ten Taxpayer Group's request for the court to compel the hospital to produce requested documents and to provide testimony that the court has already ruled the group has a right to request.
The bottom line is that this fight is not over. We urge you not to lose faith.
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson”
For more on Wednesday's ruling, please refer to the news stories in the Boston Globe and the Boston Business Journal.