October 7, 2005

Healing Garden provides a place for comfort, healing and reflection

MGH Cancer Center patients and their families soon will have a place to go to reflect and find comfort, inspiration and strength — the Howard Ulfelder, MD, Healing Garden. The rooftop garden, which will be accessible from the eighth floor of the Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care, features breathtaking views of the Charles River, Boston and Cambridge and includes an enclosed pavilion for year-round use, a courtyard area and an exterior garden with pathways, a fountain and comfortable places to sit and relax. The garden is named in honor of Ulfelder, who served as chief of Gynecology for the MGH Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology Service for more than two decades and was an internationally known gynecologist, surgeon and cancer specialist.

On Oct. 2, the MGH Cancer Center held a dedication ceremony for the donors who made the garden possible. Guest speakers included Edward P. Lawrence, Esq., chairman of the MGH Board of Trustees; Peter L. Slavin, MD, president of the MGH; Bruce A. Chabner, MD, clinical director of the MGH Cancer Center; William U. Shipley, MD, of MGH Radiation Oncology; George Richardson, MD, a former member of the MGH Department of Gynecology; and Thomas H. Ulfelder, Howard Ulfelder's son. Lawrence, Ulfelder and Slavin also participated in a ceremonial planting of the final Healing Garden plant (shown below).

The garden — which will be open Monday through Friday (except holidays), from 9 am to 5 pm — will officially open to patients, their families and staff later this fall.