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5 elements of Las Vegas’ Healing Garden explained — PHOTOS

A view of tile mosaics that create a heart shaped planter box which surrounds the tree of life ...

Las Vegas Healing Garden co-creator Jay Pleggenkuhle discusses significance of parts of the garden.

Remembrance wall

The Remembrance Wall at the Las Vegas Healing Garden in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @csstevensphoto

The initial remembrance wall was made of wooden pallets and eventually needed to be replaced with a more permanent structure. “We didn’t want a big granite wall or anything like that. We just wanted to keep it simple,” Las Vegas Healing Garden co-creator Jay Pleggenkuhle says. “The wall itself was laid out on a fractal from a nautilus shell. It’s a golden formula found in nature.”

Tree of Life tiles

A view of tile mosaics that create a heart shaped planter box which surrounds the tree of life at the Las Vegas Healing Garden in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @csstevensphoto

People stood in a line that stretched two blocks at one point to get a tile in the Love Store parking lot and then paint it on the first of three nights the tiles were offered. “I wanted something where people could contribute a piece of themselves,” Pleggenkuhle says. “I wanted them to be able to contribute something that would be very personal. It’s one thing to plant plants and everything, but I wanted them to actually be able to — for lack of a better term — “sign” the garden.”

Heart and rocks memorial

Stones inscribed with the names of the 58 Oct. 1 victims at the Las Vegas Healing Garden in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @csstevensphoto

Healing Garden co-creator Daniel Perez proposed this memorial when he and Pleggenkuhle first met Oct. 2, 2017, to sketch out plans for the garden. “Daniel actually scribbled out a heart,” Pleggenkuhle recalls. “Then he said, ‘Oh, that’s really stupid.’ And I said, ‘No, it makes sense. This is the heart of our community and it’s just been broken. Let’s take this heart and we’ll start developing the garden from that.’ ”

Shakespeare quote

A wall featuring a quote from William Shakespeare at the Las Vegas Healing Garden in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @csstevensphoto

This passage from “Romeo and Juliet” was read by Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic during the Healing Garden’s opening-night ceremonies. Jerbic helped the garden get built by fast-tracking the land-grant process after a call from Pleggenkuhle. “We found the property at 10 o’clock (in the morning),” Jerbic recalls. “He was back at 4 o’ clock with a drawing.”

Waterwall

The Remembrance Wall is seen next to a water feature, center, and a quote wall, right, at the Las Vegas Healing Garden in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @csstevensphoto

The waterwall was inspired by a scene in the movie “The Shack,” where a waterfall represents a portal to the afterlife. “It’s that mysterious door to the other side,” says Pleggenkuhle, who came up with the idea.

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter.

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