How would you love to be remembered on earth?

Proverb 5:19 “A loving doe, a graceful deer-may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love” (NIV).

Most American men show affection to loved ones by giving them roses, which symbolize LOVE. Well, one Western Minnesota man took it to another level, to prove the depth of his love for his wife for life! He planted a fine rose garden along the boulevard where they lived to memorialize her. Now, hundreds of people flock to the garden daily, taking photographs and having fun time. James Kokulo Fasuekoi, Global Ekklesia Editor-Publisher visited the garden in St. Cloud twice during the week.

When Bill Clemens set out thirty-six years ago, to create a rosy garden as a memorial to his dear wife, Virginia Clemens, little did he know his kind gesture would go beyond what he had envisaged.

His garden would form part of St. Cloud City’s history.  

Although Bill created the garden to memorialize his lovely “Virginia Clemens,” both he and his wife are well remembered by people living Western Minnesota and beyond for his work.  In fact, hundreds of St. Cloud’s city dwellers flock into the Clemens’ Garden daily, to get a touch, or glance at roses of all kinds. 

Yet, many visitors to Virginia Clemens Rose Garden, are drawn there for the history behind this beautiful rose garden, an engrossing love story of a man and his wife, who once were residents of the Munsinger Neighborhood, along Kilian Blvd on the banks of the Mississippi River.

“The gardens have become a favorite place for weddings and family celebration” and visited by “thousands of community members and tourists,” according to an online community news called Community Giving.

Bill Clemens had developed the garden in 1986 “as a gift of love to his wife, Virginia” says one visitor to the garden, Thursday.

Virginia is said to have suffered from some sort of debilitating illness that eventually had her confined to their home. 

With such condition, Virginia’s “love of roses,” says Community Giving, “inspired Bill to establish the rose garden which Virginia could see from their home overlooking the Mississippi River”

Community Giving cites August 1998 as the time Virginia passed away, followed by Bill in March 2016. A life-size bronze statue of the pair shows Virginia sitting in a wheelchair, while Bill cheerfully helps her around in their neighborhood. 

Also, a search by this writer concerning the couple’s religious background revealed nothing. But Proverb 5:19 gives the following command to Christians: “A loving doe, a graceful deer-may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love” (NIV).

The Virginia Clemens Rose Garden occupies more than “20 acres of world-class gardens, plant collections and historic hardscape,” according to information gathered from the garden’s booklet. 

Featured by the gardens are six gardens of different kinds-they include, The Formal Garden, plus The White Garden that’s modeled after the Garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, England.

Virginia Clemens Rose Garden has over 1,000 various kinds of roses in it. All of this is complemented by a historic cabin, a wishing well as well as a gazebo, or rotunda.

So big has the image of this garden grown in Western Minnesota that the city of St. Cloud, says one of the garden’s visitors, currently pays scores of locals who join other city volunteers to tender to the Clemens Garden daily.

At the east end of the garden is the following wording below a memento to The Clemens: “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” This statement is certainly true, especially for Bill and Virginia.

Though they both may be long gone, their memories, one consisting of an unfeigned affection, still linger on just like the blooming roses in their riverside garden in St. Cloud, MN. 

Banner photograph shows a cabin in a wooded area of Clemens Garden.