Sad News

With great sadness, I report that our beloved rooster has left this earth for higher ground. After a long, severe illness for which there is no known cure, I found a remedy a few weeks ago and for those short weeks he made amazing progress. Suddenly he took a turn for the worse and a few days later quietly passed on.

Noone knew his background except that he was unwanted.  Many people in the community came to know how fun, exciting, playful and unique a rooster can be, and with all the care he needed for his intense health issues, I eventually came to learn how loving and tender Brewster was. It was a privilege and an honor to serve him and care for him, since he was kind of a symbol for what a community can do for an outcast, be it person, plant, animal or public space. I served the community to keep him well and bring him a hopeful future. Not all members of the garden agreed to keep him, or even cared about what happened to him, but then, the garden is full of all kinds of life that has found existence through mutual support, so why not an accidental rooster too?

I know I will never be the same after this intense experience. His health care took hours out of my day, away from any personal time, for many months. Many people marvel at the commitment of time, but I only did what to me seemed to be the right thing to do, day after day. Although I was unattached to the outcome, I really hoped he would get better and be able to have an enjoyable future since he spent a lot of his time with us being hand fed and convalescing. He was really part of our family, with the other birds here, all of them eating together and the rooster getting up eventually whenever I would get up and he was invited to join us, from his sleeping post.

He will be sorely missed, and the space in my heart that had grown much larger while I had a chance to love him, will be empty until I can fill it with an even larger capacity to love.

Kind regards,

Elizabeth Hardwick

Architect