For those scores of interested residents who were kind enough to express their support for my efforts to create a memorial garden in Roslyn Village for my late husband, Millard Prisant---here is how it all turned out.

In mid-November, I attended a meeting of the Roslyn Village Board of Trustees, bringing with me a plan for planting the grounds of the Clock Tower. (You may remember that the Clock Tower was one of the options suggested to me when the Village expressed its disinclination to insure the wedge of state-owned land on 25A I'd hoped to use. The Clock Tower plot struck me as ideal because Millard had been so emotionally and financially involved in the Tower's restoration.) The modest garden I had in mind for the Clock Tower grounds was simply a flower border around the edge where the grass meets the stone wall: only an 18" wide band of low annuals---none as tall as a geranium. That's all. No shrubs; no trees; no memorial plaque; merely an historically appropriate ribbon of flowers; a Victorian "bedding out."

The Village Board, however, had evidently made up its collective mind before it entered the public meeting room. On the phone beforehand, perhaps, or in a "pre-meeting meeting," the trustees had united in their objection to anything I might offer. This can be the only explanation for the fact that they barely glanced at the drawings I handed them: for the fact that they immediately stated-without questioning me, and without discussion or consultation among themselves-that no such planting would be allowed. Why? Because the Clock Tower site is very occasionally used as a public meeting place. People might trip over the flowers and sue the Village. (Remember now, begonias, dusty miller and liriope are less than 10" high and entirely non-shrubby-though, in truth, the trustees actually never bothered to ask what type of plant material would be used.) They did come prepared to offer three other Roslyn Village locations, however, the first in Gerry Park; the second, the area bordering the lake behind the Village parking lot (which they hope ultimately to make into a boardwalk-like adjunct to the park); and the last, the grounds adjoining a soon-to-be-built bus shelter. Surely it must be as clear to you as it is to me that none of these locations is a public space. None, certainly, will ever be walked upon by Roslyn's far too litigious and clumsy residents-particularly not in the park or that area around the bus shelter. Perhaps-somehow-these spaces will be used less often than the Clock Tower's seemingly holy ground? (Though have you noticed that recently someone's been planting the Clock Tower property? Such seasonal plantings must cost the Village money. Millard's garden, of course, would have been free.)

It appears, then, that the time has finally come for me to stop forcing myself and this garden on an unwilling Village. As a result of reading about the controversy, the Village of Roslyn Harbor has generously offered me a prime half-acre on Glen Cove Road, and there, I hope to donate a handsome horticultural gift to Roslyn Harbor and the street.

It's ironic, however. After Millard and I moved away from Main Street, Roger and Peggy Gerry told us often how sad they were that we'd no longer be next-door neighbors; that we'd moved "away" to Roslyn Harbor. They continued to depend on us, nevertheless, and let us know that they appreciated the fact that our hearts and goodwill remained with the Village. Now, it seems, we must move away for good.

Carol Prisant