Silver Story: Nourishing Others from Seed to Table
Ellora Lyons who inspires the My Mother’s Community Garden
The Legacy of Ms Ellora Lyons through My Mother’s Community Garden
This month we interviewed Cheryll Boswell and Charla Flemming from My Mother’s Community Garden. These daughters have created a living legacy for their mother, Ellora Lyons, and her powerful commitment to improving the lives of others.
The garden’s development is a testimony of the grace and dignity that older adults bring to their communities by living out their principles, and values, and “walking the talk” of integrity. Charla and Cheryll fondly recall that Ellora Lyons was well known to her neighbors and community as one who would work hard, get the job done and get it done WELL, and always with a caring loving smile.
The website for My Mother’s Community Garden tells the amazing story of starting over 13 years ago to supplement fresh produce for a local church’s food pantry and Ellora’s commitment to drive more than 20 miles to cultivate this garden. Please be sure to click the link and enjoy the story and faithfulness of her family to create and sustain this garden on the Southside of Peoria.
My Mother's Community Garden - Community Garden, Gardening (mymotherscommunitygarden.org)
The mission of My Mother’s Community Garden is to provide healthy and affordable food options for people in the community while teaching sustainable urban gardening. The vision is that everyone in the community has access to healthy food choices and skills to sustain a healthy lifestyle while improving our community and environment. My Mother's Community Garden has turned an urban eyesore into a beautiful corner while building community ties.
To describe such an impactful life is an honor and it is hoped that this summary of my interview with Charla and Cheryll gives due respect for Ms. Ellora’s beautiful legacy and to her family.
Charla and Cheryll are two of seven children of Ellora. Ellora was born in Oklahoma in a family of 12 children and was raised on a farm. Marriage brought her to Peoria. Healthy eating was always Ellora’s way of life. Everything the family ate was made by hand, and even what would be considered “fast food” like a hamburger dinner, were cooked in the home with healthy ingredients. She was a stickler for doing things correctly and having things neat and in proper order, even if it meant stopping traffic while she swept away leaves in front of her home. Ellora did not know any strangers and reached out to one and all to be an encouragement. All who knew her respected her caring spirit and her commitment to good! She was very active in her community, and her church, and was always the last to finish a project because she wanted it done well and completely! Ellora lived a long, healthy life which her family attributes to her healthy eating, physical activity, and outgoing spirit. Her family worked out how to care for her at home in shifts when dementia took its toll at the end of her life, and she was surrounded in love with her family when she passed. Ellora worked in the garden with her family and community members, chatting alongside them while working, teaching, and encouraging their understanding of where food came from and the necessary effort it takes to produce quality food. Ellora was the original “organic” gardener by not using pesticides and implementing pollinators. Although the garden is not certified as organic, every principle of organic gardening is used.
Ellora started the garden as a response to her pastor’s desire to supplement the church’s food pantry. Originally this was located quite a distance away, in Spring Bay. Distance and time were no barriers to Ellora who brought her family along to help, further teaching them the seed-to-table concept, and Biblical principles of working the soil, tending the seeds, reaping the harvest, and sharing the fruits of their labor with others. When distance did not make sense any longer, lots in the food desert of Southside Peoria were purchased and developed with good soil, eventual water sprinkling systems, and outreach to community groups for education. During COVID-19, children from the Proctor Recreational Center and District 150 started coming to the garden to learn about urban agriculture and many of these educational programs with children are ongoing. Charla and Cheryll note that keeping the garden going is a “labor of love”. Produce is shared with the community and “disappears quickly”. As part of their sustainability plan, they are working to engage people who enjoy the bounty of the garden to get engaged and help with the work of the garden. For sustainability, they have also started making some incredible hot sauce that they sell. They report having quite a following for these sauces which helps to cover some of the overall expenses. As we know, the harvest is plenty, and laborers are few! So additional help to bear the work of the gardening itself is a priority for them.
Originally the garden was called “Ellora’s Community Garden” and a sign in the garden notes this name. The overall title of the garden has a broader connotation “My Mother’s Community Garden” as a tribute to all the mothers and matriarchs in the community who lead by example and hard, dedicated work, to help others live healthy, productive lives. Charla and Cheryll commented that some people say they come to the garden to get peace of mind, to relax on the benches there, and to enjoy nature.
When Charla and Cheryll were asked what are some of the challenges they face with aging, they noted that it is odd to see oneself as being a “senior”, they do not embrace that as a label. For the aging process itself, they recommend acting the age you want to be, respecting conditions but not taking them as limitations. Both are very active physically, going to spin classes among other activities. Another tip is “Don’t act your age, act like who you want to be!”. They like the term a “sen-ager” to act and be the age you feel like. They noted that for the garden, a challenge is for them to build a succession plan so that it will continue for generations. Some issues facing the garden include perceptions of the 61605 area and the overall difficulty of engagement that exists in most communities to recruit and maintain a volunteer force for the effort needed to continue the work.
Their message for the next generations includes savoring moments and creating memories. Once their mother passed, they realized that some of her recipes were not written down! One of their daughters missing their grandma, yeared for “a taste of grandmother’s sweet potatoes”. So they encourage us to write recipes down! Savor the moments with our loved ones. The advice they shared is to not see older adults as just being older people, but to see them as a wealth of knowledge and wisdom; collect their stories and their understanding of how to move through life.
Peoria was blessed and continues to be blessed by the life lived by Ellora Lyons. Her family’s tribute to her legacy by continuing her seed-to-plate healthy eating principles by extending the sharing of the garden produce is a remarkable contribution to the wellness of Peoria residents. Graceland Center salutes Ellora for her incredible integrity, strength, faith, and kindness and her family for continuing to live out her legacy in their contributions to Peoria. We all need to pitch in and support this beautiful, literal “grassroots” effort to improve the lives of Peorians!