There are some gardens planted with flowers.
Others are planted with purpose.
At Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital in Hackensack, a rooftop garden filled with colorful artwork, butterflies, flowers, frogs, a wishing fountain and places to play carries the vision of a little girl whose impact continues to reach families throughout Bergen County and beyond.
Her name was Josephine Elle Rispoli.
Josephine was just 6 years old when she was diagnosed in September 2010 with atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, or AT/RT, a rare and aggressive pediatric brain tumor. Over the following year, she endured multiple surgeries, five rounds of high-dose chemotherapy, two stem cell transplants and six weeks of radiation, spending more than 250 days as an inpatient at the children's hospital.
But even in the middle of her own treatment, Josephine was thinking about other children.
Long hospital stays meant being separated from something most children take for granted: going outside.
Josephine missed sunshine. She missed fresh air. She missed feeling the wind on her face and simply having the freedom to be a little girl.
Together with her mother, Heidi Hartung-Rispoli, Josephine began imagining something different.
"We spoke about the need for an outdoor space for the kids on the oncology floor," Heidi recalls.
They found an unused rooftop and began dreaming on paper.
The idea was a secret oasis where pediatric patients could escape the hospital environment without truly leaving it. There would be flowers and nature, places to create, things to climb, room for families to sit together and, most importantly, a chance for children to simply be children.
It would be, as Heidi describes it, "a place to blow bubbles, feel the elements and dream."
Josephine died on Oct. 23, 2011, following her yearlong battle with cancer. She was 7.
But the garden she imagined did not end with her.
From a Daughter's Dream to a Mother's Purpose
Grief could have brought Josephine's plans to a halt.
Instead, for Heidi, it created an urgency to make them real.
She poured herself into creating the garden she and her daughter had envisioned, determined that Josephine's experience would make life a little brighter for the children who came after her.
On July 9, 2012, the day Josephine would have turned 8, family and friends gathered to officially unveil Josephine's Garden.
Every detail carries meaning.
A whimsical frog fountain honors Josephine's love of frogs. A climbing boulder represents stability and connection to nature. Chalkboard walls give children a place to create. A 12-foot, hand-hewn warrior pole represents the battle endured by children facing cancer, inviting young patients to carve their names into it and leave their mark.
For children whose lives can suddenly become defined by hospital rooms, medications, procedures and test results, the garden gives something back that illness can take away: a piece of childhood.
One mother shared that she heard her little girl giggle for the first time when the wind tickled her face in the garden.
Another parent described Josephine's Garden as a place to step away during especially difficult hospital days, water the flowers, connect with other parents and find a few moments of normalcy.
One family put its impact even more simply: "Josephine's Garden literally saved my life while my son was going through treatment."
Those moments are the legacy Josephine and Heidi imagined.
Growing Beyond the Garden
What began as one physical space has grown into a larger mission.
Today, Josephine's Garden provides support and love to children and families navigating pediatric brain tumors while raising critical funding for research toward a cure.
The organization has supported more than 1,000 families, raised more than $1 million for research and provided more than $500,000 in in-kind donations.
Those numbers are powerful.
But behind every one is a child and a family whose life changed with a diagnosis.
For Heidi, that is why awareness alone has never been enough.
"The fight against pediatric cancer must be a community effort," she says.
It is a message that feels especially meaningful here in Bergen County, where Josephine's story began and where her legacy continues to touch families walking through the doors of Hackensack's children's hospital.
The Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital sees more than 100,000 visits annually. Some children are there for hours. Others, like Josephine, spend extended stretches of their childhood within hospital walls.
Josephine's Garden gives those families a place to breathe.
And the organization carrying her name gives the greater community an opportunity to help.
Pain Into Purpose
Heidi often describes her journey as turning "pain into purpose."
That purpose has continued to evolve.
A licensed social worker and psychotherapist, Heidi has built her work around helping others navigate life's most challenging moments. She is also an artist, personal trainer, yoga teacher and practitioner of several healing modalities, bringing together traditional therapy with creative arts, movement, sound and nature.
Her philosophy is simple but deeply connected to everything Josephine's Garden represents:
"Nature soothes. Movement releases. Creating empowers. And talking validates."
In many ways, the garden embodies all four.
There is nature.
There is movement.
There is creativity.
And perhaps most importantly, there is a space where families facing unimaginable circumstances can feel less alone.
Heidi's life after Josephine has not been about moving on from her daughter.
It has been about moving forward with her.
"I lost her in body, but I refuse to let her die," Heidi has written of the purpose that drives her.
Through every child who feels the sun on their face in the garden, every parent who finds a moment of peace and every dollar directed toward research, Josephine remains part of the story.
Something Greater Than Gratitude
November often asks us to consider what we are thankful for.
Sometimes gratitude looks like appreciating what we have.
But stories like Josephine's remind us that gratitude can also ask something of us.
It can become generosity.
It can become showing up.
It can become supporting a neighbor, helping a family we may never meet or contributing to research that could change another child's future.
It can become action.
This November, the community will have an opportunity to put that spirit into action. Josephine's Garden Annual Luncheon will be held Nov. 19, bringing supporters together to celebrate Josephine's legacy and help continue the organization's mission of supporting children and families affected by pediatric brain tumors while advancing critical research.
The annual gathering is another way Josephine's story continues to bring people together, turning remembrance into support and support into meaningful change for families facing pediatric cancer.
That is perhaps one of the most enduring lessons growing inside Josephine's Garden.
A 7-year-old girl saw something missing during the most difficult year of her life and imagined something better, not only for herself, but for every child who might come after her.
Her mother made sure it happened.
And more than a decade later, a community continues helping it grow.
In a season centered around giving thanks, Josephine's legacy offers a beautiful reminder:
Sometimes the greatest way to honor what we love is to turn that love outward.
And sometimes, from unimaginable loss, a garden grows.
Josephine's Garden
Supporting children and families affected by pediatric brain tumors and funding research toward a cure.
josephinesgarden.org