Eve Marie Carson garden dedicated in Polk Place

The dedication of the Eve Carson Memorial Garden on a sunny Thursday afternoon brought people together.

Friends embraced. Some cried. Others in the crowd of more than 100 stood in silence. Everyone remembered.

Chancellor Holden Thorp, Student Body President Jasmin Jones and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Bob Winston III were among the speakers at the ceremony dedicating the garden in memory of students who, like Carson, died while enrolled at UNC.

Peggy Jablonski, vice chancellor for student affairs, read a poem she wrote titled “Ordinary Miracles” commemorating the lives of “those who left before their time.”

“Ordinary miracles will happen here,” she said, reading from the poem. “They already have.”

Bringing people together and strengthening friendships are just some of those miracles that Carson embodied.

“I love the fact that so many people have come together,” said senior Elinor Benami, the first recipient of the Eve Marie Carson Scholarship.

Benami said bringing people together was something Carson did and is continuing to do with the garden.

Senior Sarah Smith said even those who never had the opportunity to meet Carson can feel her impact by visiting the garden.

“The garden will be a great way for people to stop and reflect on her as a person,” Smith said. “They can see what her role was and how many lives she touched.”

Freshman Rachel Myrick was one such visitor.

“I never had the opportunity to meet her, but this keeps her presence on campus,” she said.

After the dedication speech, attendees gathered to plant ferns to put the final touch on the garden.

The garden features some of Carson’s favorite plants, including dogwood trees, shrubs and flowers. A marble wall surrounding the garden includes an inscription taken from a letter she wrote to a friend:

“Learn from every single being, experience and moment. What joy it is to search for lessons and goodness and enthusiasm in others,” the inscription reads.

Students in T-shirts and jeans crouched in the mulch alongside men in suits to add a little something to “Eve’s Garden.”

Benami said that through participating in the fern planting, people can come by and see their own impact on the garden as it transforms into something representing life and growth.

“It’s a living memorial,” said Elizabeth Shuster, assistant dean of academic advising. “She did not want to be captured static and stone. She was a dynamic person. The stone gives it structure, but the plants give it life.”

Jones said Carson was full of life.

“She was a representation of each of us,” Jones said in the ceremony. “That’s why so many of us can relate to her and remember her even if we never knew her.”

Thomas Edwards, director of the Eve Marie Carson Scholarship, said he remembered Carson for her enthusiasm.

“Eve brought a lot of passion to everything she did, whether it was helping people or a late-night dance party,” Edwards said.

“A garden was just a positive, beautiful way to memorialize someone.”

He said the garden will be a comfortable place to be with friends and learn from Carson.

Student Body Vice President David Bevevino reflected on the first time he met Carson.

“The first thing that comes to mind is her smile,” he said. “That will always stick with me.”


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