EG Love Stories: The Healing Power of Nature

by | Feb 16, 2018

Nature has always been magical for Wendy Fachon – sending messages just for her.

After her father died a few years ago, Fachon wrote a children’s book, “The Angel Heart,” about the flower more commonly known as bleeding heart. For Fachon, it’s an angel heart flower, not a bleeding heart. In the book, she strips the flower down to its basic heart shape, with petals that become fairy slippers. When all the petals are gone, what remains is a single “candle” that offers a redemptive holy light.

Nature is like that for Fachon.

“I feel closest to God – a higher power – when I am in nature,” she says. “That is my church in a way.” 

She sees things in nature that most of us walk right past. And she’s sure that if children’s eyes are open to the wonders of nature, they will be better off.

As she starts out in her tiny book called “The Resilient Butterfly,”

“Did you know that every creature
wants to be your favorite teacher?
They add drama and some mystery
to science and to natural history.”

Fachon started leading nature walks and teaching nature courses for children a few years back. When her son Neil was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor in 2016, she brought her holistic approach to his illness, bringing the outside in – including moving lots of plants indoors – when he became too ill to go out and looking for healthful, healing nutrition.

Dean, Evie, Neil and Wendy Fachon in 2016.

Neil died a year ago Monday, at age 20, after living months longer than doctors originally said he would.

Wendy Fachon has spent the last many months writing, including that book about the resilient butterfly. It’s not hard to see echoes of Neil’s resilience in that little book, or his family’s for that matter.

Turn the last page of the booklet and Fachon’s message is clear. It reads, “Not The End.” 

Wendy said some East Greenwich children and their parents helped her plant daffodil bulbs behind the high school tennis court memorial bench last fall. Neil was an avid tennis player and a beloved member of the EGHS tennis team during his years as a student there. The bench was put there in Neil’s honor last summer.

“I look forward to seeing the flowers pop up as the tennis season gets underway,” she said.

You can learn more about Wendy Fachon here.  You can find out where to get “The Angel Heart” here.  


This is one in a series of East Greenwich love stories we will be featuring during February in conjunction with our February matching donation drive. Find out more about the drive here. Or click on the Donate button below. And, if you have a love story you’d like to share – anything from a story about best friends or a child and their pet to love of a special place or business in East Greenwich – email [email protected].

 





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