To be written by Deacon Bill and Fr. Paul from what is below.
Transcript (gently edited)
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:26:04 [Jake] I am Jake, and I'm here with Deacon Bill of the Immaculate Conception Church of Mechanicsville, Maryland. Today we're going to talk about, his work in the garden. Dedicated to Mary. So my first question, what is your dream for Mary's garden in the next 5 to 10 years? Okay, but have you discussed.
[Deacon Bill] Okay, you know what the dream was first? 00:00:26:06 - 00:01:15:27 [Deacon Bill] No. So let me let me back up. Mary's Garden came out of. I was the D.R.E.. And prior to that, there was a school there that had children from, like, first grade to fourth grade or something. And so the school had like 30 or 40 people. And so on the side where Mary's garden is right now, it, became, a place for the school of in to buy, you know, some toys and things, inside, you know, like a sliding board and a wheel sort of thing or whatever. 00:01:16:00 - 00:01:47:11 [Deacon Bill] And so they put it all outside. So the first several years, you know, all the kids, you know, you know, would have, would have a place to go and play and school and they could go back out and play. Well after the school decide to move. They thought that they should just leave some of the, the stuff that was more like trash. 00:01:47:13 - 00:02:21:06 [Deacon Bill] And so they took what was, you know, something that they could use, and they left everything else. So for several years, all I looked at was junk. And then one day God said to me, there's got to be something else that we could do for this. And that's where Mary's Garden started. In my mind, because of the church, it's called. 00:02:21:06 - 00:02:57:15 [Deacon Bill] What? [Jake] The Immaculate Conception. [Deacon Bill] Immacualte Conception. Mary's church. And so that's really where it started in my little mind. I thought, you know what? Why don't we start with something very simple? So, people could, you know, walk out of church and they would come over and they could pray and everything. So I had this vision of. And I don't know why, and I have no idea why. 00:02:57:15 - 00:03:22:08 [Deacon Bill] The vision of the first thing that I wanted to, to build you know, oh, oh, oh, it was a place for fish, a pond. Well, how did that come up? I never built a pond or anything else like that. And, a friend of mine that was in the Knights of Columbus, he said he would help me, 00:03:22:08 - 00:03:51:01 [Deacon Bill] the first name was John. And he said that he he had a pond, like in his front yard where he lived. Okay. So one day, he brought a chair, and he sat down in a chair and he gave me a shovel and said, okay, we can start digging right there. So in about a month, I finally dug the pond by myself. 00:03:51:05 - 00:03:57:09 [Deacon Bill] I said, you know, and all he, And now he was nice. I mean, he brought me water stuff, 00:03:57:09 - 00:04:16:01 [Deacon Bill] And so we just went from there and we built, and, the yard. At that time, it was a mess anyway. And so we had to clear all the trees and everything out and and the fact that we did that all by hand, I mean, we didn't have a place. 00:04:16:01 - 00:04:36:21 [Deacon Bill] Word for it. Or had anybody help you kind of done it ourselves. And if you said, oh, right now that's a cross and cross in the land. That was an idea. And that was because the Knights of Columbus. I thought, 00:04:36:23 - 00:05:24:22 [Deacon Bill] makes sense to me there. And, there is a few other things over there that we had to worry about. And we kind of fixed that. But what we did was we decided to figure out what we were going to do. Then something else happened. A friend of mine who who had a garden and her mom, who actually had who actually had Mary standing by about five foot tall, you know, and I, we work together now at the, the Veterans Hall for a few years, and she wanted to sell her house. 00:05:24:24 - 00:05:42:20 [Deacon Bill] So. Oh, she asked me if I wanted a statue of Mary without knowing anything about the statue of Mary. I mean, because it was in her house. It was in her yard. Yeah. And I didn't know anything about it, so I said course, of course, 00:05:42:20 - 00:05:43:28 [Deacon Bill] you know. 00:05:44:00 - 00:05:51:17 [Deacon Bill] So after we went up there and, the day it was raining and rain, it was a day we picked to go get in 00:05:51:17 - 00:06:13:21 [Deacon Bill] because we got people here, the church now. So if you see Mary today, it's a whole new Mary. [Jake] Yeah, it looks good. [Deacon Bill] She is beautiful. [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] Like, when we get to heaven, I expect Mary in that statue in the garden to be the same person. 00:06:13:24 - 00:06:40:28 [Deacon Bill] Go ahead. That's not enough. So we had okay that we had Wentworth Brothers, we'll come down and since, you know, they sell flowers and they sell arrangements, they got other ideas. So they came and. Oh, so they helped us and now it is beautiful. It is. And then we start. The real question is what's next? 00:06:41:01 - 00:06:53:28 [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] Okay. Now here's what's going to happen. We are going to build the Mary's Garden. The second plan. 00:06:54:00 - 00:07:24:07 [Deacon Bill] That second plan will have a we we the first year we had it, we had some busses come in and started the rains and we had no way of, you know, having them stand in the rain to do the prayer groups or anything. And so we got some tents and we put tents up, and that wasn't going to work very well. 00:07:24:09 - 00:07:52:17 [Deacon Bill] But oh, well they survived. Yeah. So this year we, I've been talking about having having a roof built, now they have a special name for these roofs. It's only a four by fours. Hold the roof up. And, Oh, it's not a real roof, because it's got another. If it rains or it's going to get everyone still wet. 00:07:52:18 - 00:08:14:07 [Deacon Bill] Yeah, but, it blocks the sun a lot. And so we have chairs in there. So if you want to come and pray and so that they could come and sit and they could see Mary's garden, they could see Mary, and they could sit there and have a good time. And everything else [Jake] can be nice [Deacon Bill] and sit with God. Somebody looking to do that. 00:08:14:10 - 00:08:43:22 [Deacon Bill] We got somebody looking at it. As far as the grounds is go, right? So, we talked to people to do that. Already know what I want. I already know that we're going to have benches along the sides, so there's going to be four of those, you know, front and long sides on the back. But, they're only going to be, you know, like four foot long at a time. 00:08:43:25 - 00:09:07:22 [Deacon Bill] They give you a space in the middle and in that space in the middle there will be flowers and everything. I oh, because when we're, when we're that's going to do you know, that's you know for the for. [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] And they're going to build as you have plants in the lawn. So it will be surrounded by plants again. 00:09:07:25 - 00:09:42:05 [Jake] That'll be beautiful. [Deacon Bill] That will be beautiful. [Jake] Beautiful. [Deacon Bill] And so it really will be the second phase of the project. Because what's going to happen is we're going to we're going to take the ledge that if you would see the ledge and we're going to narrow that down so that all the land will be flat. So these of these, whatever the platforms are going to be will all be beautiful flowers, very beautiful. 00:09:42:08 - 00:09:49:24 [Deacon Bill] And we'll have a way to go from this, 00:09:49:26 - 00:10:16:12 [Deacon Bill] It's not a building, but the roofing side. You know, I you can walk out and you walk right down to Mary's Garden. Very simple, very simple plan. And I have nothing in writing. It's all in. I could see it just is just as plain as I'm sitting here. You're here to look at it. You. It's going to be beautiful. 00:10:16:15 - 00:10:19:05 [Deacon Bill] I can tell you right now it's going to be beautiful. 00:10:19:05 - 00:10:44:14 [Deacon Bill] all I did was keep praying. Keep praying. God, this is this is for Mary. So we're doing this. And so there's another plan. So phase three. Okay. Now. Right, for that gets finished. And there is there's a bridge. 00:10:44:16 - 00:10:45:28 [Deacon Bill] And I believe there's a, 00:10:45:28 - 00:10:48:22 [Deacon Bill] there's like it says, 00:10:48:22 - 00:11:11:04 [Deacon Bill] on Mary's garden. Right. But with inside inside, though, I took all these bricks. That was. Oh, that was originally from the first Mary's. And I took those with me and I shoved all those, you know, bricks around the world in that. And so we still have those. 00:11:11:04 - 00:11:51:16 [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] And so when I was getting all the Mary from for the lady who gave us the first statue, not too so her bricks and they, I put them in there. So that really is kind of kind of like the world it is in there. And so what we want to do then is really start something that is above, I think the second phase is we want a web page that has a history. 00:11:51:18 - 00:12:21:08 [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] And we got so much history from where Mary was. The statue of Mary was born and brought into Dodge and City and everything. We've got pictures of all this and everything else. So we really want to start as a web site, put that up as soon as we can. And so people would say, oh, that's what they're rebuilding. 00:12:21:10 - 00:12:49:06 [Deacon Bill] It's not what they're rebuilding. It's a building from the get go. [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] Because it wasn't like that when it was over there. And the other Millie's backyard. I mean, her mother, her mother got the statue from the church. And so they built a wall and they put the statue up there. So what was she was overlooking the water here? 00:12:49:09 - 00:13:29:20 [Deacon Bill] Near the church. But she said she's over here looking at Mary's church. So I think there's a lot of difference. [Jake] Thank you. [Deacon Bill] And so that's really and then the, the last part will be what do we do. I mean, so after the, after the sign from Mary's Garden and I'm starting to get some things that I'm thinking about, but I'm not sure where the Parks were, where the, the Parks, you know, has has the ability to do things or is that still our land? 00:13:29:22 - 00:13:48:09 [Deacon Bill] And that's what I'm trying to find out the answer for that because I want to take take all that stuff that's out of there that would then I don't think we need to worry about it, but, it's so we could build it. So it would be nice to look at when you come down there. 00:13:48:12 - 00:14:12:27 [Deacon Bill] Back street. [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] I'm seeing the trees and everything. Cut all that stuff out for the garden. Stick good stuff there. [Jake]Good. [Deacon Bill] And so that whole, So the whole area will be Mary's Garden. So that's really the, you know, I'm. I'm talking. 00:14:12:29 - 00:14:32:07 [Deacon Bill] Several years to five years plan and it really is, is it's really it's, not a plan. It's just kind of life's going to happen to make it happen in and, for Father Paul who you met. 00:14:32:09 - 00:14:34:13 [Deacon Bill] He thinks it is a great idea. And I'm thinking myself, 00:14:34:13 - 00:15:03:22 [Deacon Bill] I'm always thinking that's a great idea. Yeah. That's that's been that's how it will go. So we'll see how that works. [Jake] Something you said that really stuck out to me was you imagine when you get to heaven that that's what Mary is going to look like. That statue. So can you kind of add on to how do you imagine Mary's garden and kind of being like a center for kids to go as well with their families? 00:15:03:22 - 00:15:19:09 [Jake] And you can kind of teach them about how like, really beautiful and just overall how amazing Mary is and what she's done. [Deacon Bill] That was the, the D.R.E. for the school. 00:15:19:12 - 00:15:53:04 [Deacon Bill] I went around, you know, was picking up rocks. About yeah big and I brought them in a bucket and I and I said to all the kids that were in school, I said, you take these in, okay? You could paint them that paint them for the outside and what the rocks stood for was you got to paint those anything you wanted them because Jesus rocks. 00:15:53:06 - 00:16:10:16 [Deacon Bill] That was the whole idea. And in those rocks. Now, the reason the pond. Yeah. For this is why. Cause the rocks. Oh, if you go out there now, what it will the fact of you see a bunch of rocks, 00:16:10:16 - 00:16:22:15 [Deacon Bill] what we should strive for is, is to build something for, like, another project, to build something onto that feels. 00:16:22:16 - 00:16:25:28 [Deacon Bill] It's really. It should be for the kids. 00:16:25:28 - 00:16:31:24 [Deacon Bill] The garden is beautiful. It's set up. There's a lot of work to be done. 00:16:31:24 - 00:16:52:29 [Deacon Bill] I mean, I was just over there, you know, I think that we need gardeners. I mean, I did run the weeds in there, right? Yeah. But that's that's gonna happen. I mean, so some of the kids or parents who actually who actually would like to teach the kids about that would be perfect. I mean, I'm still in charge of it. 00:16:52:29 - 00:17:17:12 [Deacon Bill] I mean, that's what I started. [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] And and now that there's a school over there, I would have thought that somebody in the school would have started something like that. That's what I'd be preaching there. I'm still involved in the school. 00:17:17:14 - 00:17:40:05 [Jake] What kind of ideas? I know you talked about kind of expanding the garden, but do you have any more, like, kind of ideas of, like, any other more statues want to add, or do you want to kind of surround it based around that? Mary's, Mother Mary statue? [Deacon Bill] I got a perfect answer for you. Okay. 00:17:40:07 - 00:18:00:09 [Deacon Bill] But maybe three years ago, I went to a doctor and the doctor says, hey, I was I was oh, doctor, it was a dermatologist. And she was looking at my head and she saw something up there she didn't like so she took a little piece off. 00:18:00:09 - 00:18:13:01 [Deacon Bill] You know, something happened right then. I didn't think nothing about it. I found out I had cancer. 00:18:13:03 - 00:18:38:11 [Deacon Bill] Here's me. What do you do? How did you know I had it? So why am I worried about. So they sent me to doctor to have an operation. That was pretty cool. And he was telling me about how this works and how you were going to take the cancer out of your head. You know, hopefully it's, you know, don't go too far. 00:18:38:13 - 00:19:09:03 [Deacon Bill] Then I said, "I have one question." He said, "What?" I said, "All I wonder is how much this is going to cost me?" And then he said, "What?" I said, "No, seriously, how much you think it's going to cost? "Oh,"" he said "abut $100,000." I sat in the in the bed. I'm sitting in the bed, my legs are out. 00:19:09:06 - 00:19:27:02 [Deacon Bill] I turned over because I was going to get my pants back on. I said, "Nah, I don't really need it." He said, "Why?" I said, "First of all, I got seven kids." I said, "I'm not upset, I'm 71 or 2. At that point." 00:19:27:02 - 00:19:28:17 [Deacon Bill] "What, about 5 or 6 more" 00:19:28:17 - 00:19:55:06 [Deacon Bill] I said, "I just rather die with cancer."" I said, "I don't really care." So yeah. Oh that's agood attitude you got. Yeah. That's it. That's the only attitude I got because I ain't spenting all that money." And he said, "Well, oh, do we have a plan that if you sign something that says that you're going to come back every year for ten years so I could check you." 00:19:55:08 - 00:20:15:22 [Deacon Bill] "And then it would be free. I was like, wait a minute, let me, let me get this straight doc and I am the same way here, here, here with you. I said, "Seriously, doctor? I mean, I'm not kidding about this."" He said, "No, I'm not kidding. It's true."" He said, now it's it's really true. 00:20:15:24 - 00:20:47:17 [Deacon Bill] So I let my six year in as far as the cancer gone. And I go up there. It takes me longer to drive my truck up there, sit down, have a doctor look at me for ten minutes and send me off. But I signed. I signed the paper. Free. [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] But what happened here? And here's the point. What happened was, he told me that I'm supposed to ring this bell. 00:20:47:20 - 00:21:15:28 [Jake] What bill? [Deacon Bill] And then he showed me where the bell was. There was a string up on the ceiling in the wall. And. Oh, that's. What's that for? He says, whoever whoever has come in here, that, you know, that had their surgery, got fixed and everything is free of cancer. Before they leave. They ring the bell. 00:21:16:00 - 00:21:22:20 [Deacon Bill] I bought a bell. 00:21:22:23 - 00:21:57:08 [Deacon Bill] The bell is about that big around in front of you. Ask this question. I was talking with some people in church today, and we've been talking about the ring having a bell set up. Okay. By the statue of Mary out there in the garden. And we're going to build a bell that is going to be standing up. We haven't. I got it in my head, but we haven't figured it out how to do it yet. 00:21:57:10 - 00:22:14:17 [Deacon Bill] But there is going to be a rope. So whoever had or had or had a chance or something and had an operation that wants to ring, the bell and wow, is that not awesome. How did that happen? 00:22:14:17 - 00:22:39:15 [Deacon Bill] That was what God wanted us to hear. When we left because we're cancer free, but anybody who's got something wrong in the fact that the doctors cured him, I mean, could ring that bell and its the same thing. So we're going to put that in here. 00:22:39:17 - 00:23:06:00 [Deacon Bill] Here or somewhere, I'm hoping. But it's probably the fall or spring. But I got people working on it. So those, those two things are done hopefully, hopefully by next year. [Jake] Wow. [Deacon Bill] Well, that's the plan. So if we get into the third phase, that means that the first Mary's Garden and the second phase will be done. 00:23:06:03 - 00:23:10:20 [Deacon Bill] And the bell will be done. [Jake] Wow. 00:23:10:23 - 00:23:35:26 [Deacon Bill] Good. Far as I'm concerned, I'm going to have them. [Jake] Wow. [Deacon Bill] Pretty basic. What other questions you got? [Jake] Kind of continuing around this kind of focus on, Mother Mary. What kind of message would you like visitors to feel after visiting the garden? Maybe if it's like, you know, a little bit of hope with the bell there. 00:23:35:26 - 00:23:51:00 [Jake] It's something to look forward to after doing this. Or just any message you want them to take away from after visiting the garden. [Deacon Bill] But you walk in the garden, you've come there with a reason to do what? 00:23:51:02 - 00:24:22:25 [Deacon Bill] To see what somebody has put together. [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] To see the beauty of the Mother of Jesus. But do we know that she's our mother to. This is our mother's place. That's why Mary's garden has no other name. Mary's Garden, she the Mother to all of us. Now, somewhere along the line, we got to come out with the idea. 00:24:22:28 - 00:24:56:07 [Deacon Bill] This is kind of ringing in the back of my head. But how do we how do we do that? To how do we how do we get Mary to be the not just the Mary's Garden, but this is all of her garden. For the love of her kids, I know everybody sitting in the chairs watching, praying is going to be old folks. 00:24:56:09 - 00:25:33:26 [Deacon Bill] But you were young once, right? So was I. Once. But the idea though is how do we. But how do we bring that to where? I don't know, but we're going to do that. That's that. That's the long range plan. It's really how do we. See, in the fact that you could come and sit there and ponder all that stuff, and then we go do phase three as the bench, as the front that you laid out towards more beautiful and things. 00:25:33:29 - 00:25:40:29 [Deacon Bill] Then what do we do to sort of tie it all together? [Jake] Yeah. 00:25:41:02 - 00:25:58:14 [Deacon Bill] But everybody's going to come up with some thoughts and everybody's going to come up with something because that's a that's a large as it can be. See. And that's where people now, you know, what people from the road. 00:25:58:16 - 00:26:08:02 [Deacon Bill] I guess, and I guess that you saw it already. Haven't you? The road. But I would, 00:26:08:04 - 00:26:29:07 [Deacon Bill] Oh, it's not called a road, thought. Oh, no let's see. Oh. Where the bikes go down, [Jake]I know, yeah. [Deacon Bill] I don't know what they call it. [Jake] I don't know. [Deacon Bill] I mean, I mean, whatever the bikes go down. Yeah, I know, that we got a lot of people in the Garden. Look at that. Yeah, we have a lot of people who ride bikes down there. 00:26:29:07 - 00:26:50:00 [Deacon Bill] They all wave and say something. And so we really need to see, like, to include them too. And so that's another thought that we've always thought about. And I don't really talk to anybody. Yeah. I was I'm sure somebodies got some suggestions I've always thought was well up to that, but, 00:26:50:02 - 00:27:15:07 [Deacon Bill] But it's got to be from the hearts bottom. We don't we don't plan to make money. I don't plan to charge. I don't plan to do anything but spend somebody's money for the, for God's grace. It's for the garden. [Jake] Thank you. I have one final question. Why do you think it's important to kind of keep and continue to grow the garden? 00:27:15:07 - 00:27:43:04 [Jake] And, you know, it's as beautiful as it is already. Do you think it's important to continue to kind of add on to it? And I know you have your vision about what you want the garden to end up, but why would you think that is important to kind of attracting like younger generations, to come and learn more about the faith. 00:27:43:07 - 00:27:54:02 [Deacon Bill] We have we have a high school there, and I want to say the grades or eighth grade. 00:27:54:05 - 00:28:22:16 [Deacon Bill] Starting to seniors year. But we also have the church is up here. We got it from kindergarten through 12th grade and everything else. So we're always going to have and we're always going to have the younger generation of people coming to our church. [Jake] Yeah [Deacon Bill] It's the church that's going to provide who has the ability to say, now we know. 00:28:22:19 - 00:28:51:02 [Deacon Bill] Now we have the church, and now we have a park that you can go see Mary's Garden and be part of Mary's life and be part of that. And that's really what this whole thing was about. This is about family. Yeah. And that's really what we have to do. And we have to sell that as a, not sell it, but show people how important it is. 00:28:51:05 - 00:29:27:18 [Deacon Bill] To realize that this came from just a broken down system. And this is why the next thing that if I was you that would get you to work with is the web site. And the reason why that's where that's where you captured young people's hearts and souls, why's that, because that's what they're doing now. That's why all the young people are coming back. 00:29:27:21 - 00:29:29:26 [Deacon Bill] Come back to the Catholic Church. 00:29:29:26 - 00:29:58:00 [Deacon Bill] But the idea though, is we have a church that when Father Paul started. But he's only been here like several months, and he's got a lot of young people coming back to our church. And my kids, like I did baptisms every week. I'm sure to do more baptisms. Okay, that's the younger people coming into our church, and that is a place where they could come over here. 00:29:58:03 - 00:30:23:22 [Deacon Bill] So how do we do that? We we can't expand the land that we have, but we have a whole backyard that hasn't been anybody. Everybody wants to have a picnic or whatever. No, but seems to me you're not thinking like I did with Mary's garden. So what do we do with that? Oh, I wish someone asked me what I thought about that. 00:30:23:27 - 00:30:48:19 [Deacon Bill] I mean, I have to do something with because I think we got a lot of land that we just ought to utilize for other projects. [Jake] Yeah. [Deacon Bill] But we don't have anybody working on. Why? You got land over here, because someone gave it. Oh, someone gave us all that land. And, we do, for the church. 00:30:48:21 - 00:30:56:12 [Deacon Bill] What were you last? How about a baseball field. 00:30:56:14 - 00:31:01:14 [Deacon Bill] Right. And stuff like that. 00:31:01:16 - 00:31:36:09 [Deacon Bill] What? What why? That thing. That's that's the thing. Why don't the Knights of Columbus have people do that? Oh, the other, you know. Oh, oh, we far as groups go, well, it's Father Paul wants to do stuff. He wants to make it grow. How you make it grow. You take something like that field, put it together and sell it. 00:31:36:12 - 00:32:04:20 [Deacon Bill] And whoever got the web page. And I think that if if Tim is telling me the truth, that you got brains, that I'd utilize that to make that what I do next. For gardens in that backyard because that's really the I think that's the key to the whole future of Immaculate Conception. 00:32:04:22 - 00:32:29:04 [Deacon Bill] Amen to that. [Jake] Amen. [Deacon Bill] Because that's, that's I mean that's, that's, that's the kind of thinking I've been doing for years. I don't know where and I'll be honest with you, I don't know where that comes from except God the why the I don't know. So, that's all I got. [Jake] Thank you for your time. [Deacon Bill] Oh, no, it's my pleasure.