HUMBOLDT-Introducing Jan Wilhelm as this month’s Bee’s Best. 

Jan was nominated for her work with the Southeast Nebraska Memorial Cancer Garden. 

Jan worked endless hours designing the Southeast Nebraska Memorial Cancer Garden.  She also just designed a new walk for the Lions Club in Humboldt. 

“I’m a volunteer down here at the cancer garden. I’m the one that planned, designed, and it was my dream of making this beautiful cancer garden for all cancer survivors, fighters, and to all the ones in Southeast Nebraska/State of Nebraska that we lost to cancer.  It’s such a devastating disease, my husband is actually one of the reasons I did this.  We lost his son, Jeff and he was such a handsome man.  We watched him whittle down to nothing, and it’s painful and I know how horrible it is for everybody that loses to cancer.  Loses their family member, and it’s the ones that are left that have to grieve.   We needed a place for them. I decided we needed to make a place and I love this area, the ground laid out the way it was laid.  This dream came to me for this landscape design, and I got a bunch of Humboldt Garden Club Members together, we worked very hard.   I didn’t do it all by myself I tell you, but it was many many long hard hours. 10-12 hours a day bringing in all the stone, the plants.  I can’t take credit at all, but it’s beautiful and we have people coming from all over feeling the love.   You see them come down with tears in their eyes, and they say thank you so much for making this beautiful garden for us. I thank everybody who comes down and actually for voting for me as a volunteer, thank you very much, but I did not do it by myself.  But I did put a lot of work into it, and I would do it again, it’s well worth it and that’s why it’s here. “