ERVING — Annabelle Lucas planted the seed of friendship, leadership, generosity and compassion in the Erving community.
Now, those seeds are blossoming in the form of a shaded pollinator garden at the Erving Public Library, honoring Lucas for her role as a volunteer and dedicated member of the Friends of the Erving Public Library.
On a warm and sunny Sunday morning, friends and relatives of Lucas gathered at the back patio of the library, with yellow mums in hand. Guests were given a small packet of seeds to plant forget-me-nots in honor of Lucas.
Lucas, who was referred to as Ann, died in February 2024 after a year-long battle with leukemia and heart disease. She was a lifelong Franklin County resident, having lived in Turners Falls in her youth before moving to Greenfield, where she graduated from Greenfield High School and pursued a secretarial degree at Greenfield Community College. She then worked for the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a secretary. After her retirement, she attended Franklin County’s YMCA in Greenfield, and frequented the Erving Senior & Community Center and Erving Public Library.
Erving Public Library Director Abigail Baines, Friends President Becky Hubbard, Lucas’ cousin David Brule and Lucas’ daughter, Bernadette Lucas, shared their memories of Annabelle on Sunday, and the impact she had on their lives.
“The Friends hope that everyone who comes to this garden … their memories of Ann and her friendship bring them joy and a smile,” Hubbard said. “Ann, you are forever in our hearts and you will always be remembered.”
The pollinator garden
Baines said the library, with support from the Friends, made it a priority to establish gardens. Federal funding has supported the creation of other gardens at the library.
This new pollinator garden, though, was made possible using leftover grant funding from a 2023 FirstLight Sustains grant. With the help of Jocelyn Demuth of Checkerspot Farm in Colrain, this shaded pollinator garden was planted with all native plants.
Maureen “Rinky” Black, a member of the Friends of the Erving Public Library and the Conservation Commission, has gone to the garden to help tend to it since Demuth and other volunteers planted it in the fall. Since then, she’s come by to water the plants, and recently put down some mulch to help support growth.
The plants in this garden are all native to the region and are meant for shaded conditions. These include irises, white wood aster, bottlebrush grass, violets, geraniums and more. The garden also has a plaque dedicated to Lucas, and a statue of her dog, Daisy, who was given an informal title of “listening dog” at the library when Lucas would bring her around.
Lessons from Lucas
Lucas’ connection to the library through the Friends group began as a call to service, Hubbard explained. Before the new library was built at 2 Care Drive, the old library once stood at 17 Moore St., and a call was put out for community members to support it. Lucas and Hubbard signed up to be part of this group, and she recalls thinking of the excitement the then-library director and library trustees must’ve had seeing more than 20 names on the sign-up sheet for folks interested in participating.
“Lo and behold, as often is the case for organizations that require active volunteers to expend time and energy, five people attended, and who was there among the five?” Hubbard asked.
“Ann!” voices from the group exclaimed.
“Ann, you’re right,” Hubbard affirmed. She explained that Lucas was also the only one of those five with experience volunteering at the library already, and she came to that meeting to learn more about what she could do to support her community.
Throughout her remarks, Hubbard shared lessons Lucas taught those around her, such as, “Be resourceful, be a problem solver.” She demonstrated one lesson, “Don’t be a talker, be a doer,” when she would hear of someone seeking a plant that was not available at the plant sale. Rather than let them leave empty-handed, she would go back to her garden and fetch the plant that person was seeking.
“Ann taught family and friends lessons to live by,” Hubbard said, speaking emotionally of her friend of 18 years. “Quietly, subtly, just by the way she lived her life, you learn by watching and being a friend of hers, or being a colleague and Friend of the Library, or being a patron at the library where she dedicated so many years.”
After Hubbard, Brule talked about his cousin, speaking to their French-Canadian heritage that the two took pride in. They would be part of family gatherings in their youth, and would eventually reconnect with each other in the 1980s once Brule moved back to Erving.
Brule recalled their walks together and seeing her two beloved dogs, Bonnie and Daisy; speaking French to each other to maintain the family language; even her coming to watch him play music at Element Brewing Co. in Millers Falls.
Before the end of the speeches, Bernadette Lucas spoke to the love her mother had for the library, and her appreciation for the community around her. As her mother’s health failed, Bernadette offered Annabelle to come live with her in Amesbury. But Annabelle didn’t want to, and Bernadette learned why after seeing the connection she made with Brule, and the way she was embraced by those at the library.
“I said, ‘Oh, now I get why she doesn’t want to come to my house,'” Bernadette said, soliciting laughter from the crowd. “Her life’s so much richer here.”
After the speeches concluded, guests got a tour of the garden, followed by a reception inside the library, where fellow Friend of the Erving Public Library Geraldine Cornwell spoke to the generosity and care Lucas shared with her during a difficult time in her life.
“She’s been like a second mother to me all these years,” Cornwell said, adding that her husband died at a young age, and Lucas was there to support her, making sure she had fruits and vegetables, and would help encourage her to grow her own garden. “You can’t ask for a better person to be friends with.”
In between catching up with friends and family at the reception, Bernadette Lucas shared her appreciation to the Erving Public Library and the community at large for the support they showed her mother. She shared that if she had to pick a type of flower that best described her mother, it would be a zinnia.
“It’s hardy. It’s resistant. It grows easily. It’s beautiful,” Lucas said, “and it’s a pollinator and nurtures bugs and butterflies.”
