• January 22, 2001
• Vol. 55
• No. 3

Something for Amy

A Grieving Grandmother Plants a Garden of Crosses for Young Victims of Violence

Ten months after the murder of her 19-year-old granddaughter, Carolyn Barker visited the spot where the bubbly teenager had been shot, on the outskirts of Fort Worth in 1998. There, on a hill, Barker was surprised to discover a small handmade cross bearing the words "Amy Robinson: In God's Hands." Touched by the anonymous gesture, Barker decided to erect her own memorial, and invited others who had lost loved ones to do the same. "Amy never liked to be alone," says Barker, 58. "I couldn't stand to put just one cross there."

Today the hill, which locals have dubbed Our Garden of Angels, is home to 22 white wooden crosses, each bearing the name of a young murder victim. Local residents have been so moved by the display that it will now be permanently installed in a nearby park, complete with benches, a waterfall and a brick walkway, all donated by local businesses. "I feel some comfort going out to the crosses, because she's with other kids," says Barker, an accountant and mother of five who helped raise Amy, whose killers—two coworkers from her job at a local grocery store—are now on death row. "She was the light of our family."

Brenda O'Quin, whose 17-year-old son Michael McEachern was slain in 1995, finds solace there as well. People bring teddy bears, photos and other mementos, notes O'Quin, so instead of focusing on the murders, the park "is more about the lives of the kids."