For a living, Susan Pandolfi relaxes the bodies of her patients
as a physical therapist, but for pleasure, she relaxes her mind and
spirit by volunteering in the garden at the Mission at San Juan
Bautista.
For a living, Susan Pandolfi relaxes the bodies of her patients as a physical therapist, but for pleasure, she relaxes her mind and spirit by volunteering in the garden at the Mission at San Juan Bautista.
“I love gardening,” she said. “Always have since I was a little girl.”
Every Wednesday, Pandolfi makes the 40 minute drive to the Mission from her home town of Corralitos, to water, manicure and maintain the eclectic mix of cacti, towering tress and rows of colorful roses. Long-time master gardener Javier Munoz retired from the Mission two-and-a-half months ago, and when the church asked for volunteers to work in the garden, Pandolfi saw an opportunity. Since becoming a member of the church, she has spent many afternoons sitting in the missions’ garden sketching pictures of the Virgin Mary statue.
“I just think it’s beautiful out here, and there is such a feeling of peace,” she said. “I just admire that statue. It’s really the whole reason I’m out here.”
Although she has her own garden at home, Pandolfi enjoys tending to the Mission garden because of the variety and history of the plants there. The two-story-tall cacti, and olive trees with woven trunks, have been around at least 200 years, she said.
“You rarely see a cactus this big, and especially with everything else around it growing so well,” she said. “In college, I studied art and so when I look at this garden, I look at it as a canvas, and I try to bring out the different colors and shades of light that are there.”
Another interesting part of the job is the people she meets.
“I’ve had people come up to me who have come back to the mission after 30 years, and say ‘Oh I remember being here when I was a little kid,'” Pandolfi said. “There are so many people who have had life changing experiences in this garden. Just the other week there was a women sitting on that bench who got a phone call that her daughter had just dropped dead of a heart attack, and she started in crying. Life really does come in and out of here.”
On certain occasions, Pandolfi has even encountered lives, or spirits from the past.
“One day, I was taking a photo of the Mary statue and I kept seeing these tall white figures through the camera,” she said. “I kept thinking it was something with the lighting or my film, but it couldn’t have been because the sun was shining the other way and I was shooting with a digital camera.”
As she goes about her day, sharing conversations with others, and trimming the hundreds of roses, Pandolfi’s golden retriever sits in the shade and enjoys the warm weather. During the week, when she isn’t there, Pandolfi said different people watch over the property to make sure it gets watered if there is really dry weather. She’s even been known to sneak out to the garden before mass on Sundays, just to make sure everything is watered and OK.
“It’s really embarrassing,” she said. “I’ll sneak out there to turn on the sprinklers, and show up at Mass with mud all over my heels.”
