Today, the Friends of the Prouty Garden published another full-page advertisement in the Boston Globe with a simple plea and additional information about the hearing on Thursday. The ad may be viewed in its entirety here.

Our message is simple: for the generations who have come before and the generations still to come, the Prouty Garden absolutely must remain.

It is hard to describe merely with words and pictures just how very precious and powerful, how very life affirming and soul soothing, the Prouty Garden is, unless you have experienced it firsthand. As FPG member Gus Murby said to WBUR last summer, "This is something that a small number of people intensely understand."

This is, of course, relatively speaking -- for many thousands of patients, families of patients, and healthcare providers, have intensely understood this over the nearly 60 years that the Prouty Garden has been in existence.

We recently received a passionate email from one of our many supporters, who did a very good job of capturing the outrage we all feel that this space could be destroyed. She wrote:

“To violate this space is to violate the hearts and souls of everyone who has experienced this garden. Everyone who has been healed by it.
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We urge all who are able to come to the hearing on Thursday. You are welcome to speak, but you do not have to. The mere presence of a room full of people who care deeply about this issue will speak volumes. For more details or to RSVP, please visit the Facebook event page.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.