Local & State Headlines

Pavers honor loved ones

• Families and friends celebrate their loved ones by having their names etched in stone.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — Evelyn Torrellas’ mother is buried in her family’s home territory of Puerto Rico, and her husband was laid to rest at Andersonville National Cemetery.

If it weren’t for dedicated pavers at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Torrellas said she wouldn’t be able to visit her family on special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and Christmases.

“It’s as if they were buried here,” Torrellas, a Phoebe employee, said in Spanish Wednesday during the Phoebe Foundation’s annual Celebration of Life dedication ceremony. On some days, Torrellas said she sits under the paved path’s nearby trees to enjoy the weather and her lunch.

“It’s a great tribute to him,” the Lee County resident said of her late husband, Dr. Angel Torrellas.

She added, “I work here, he was hospitalized here and it’s a good cause for the Phoebe Foundation.”

For 15 years, the foundation has sold $75 personalized pavers that are laid in a path along Phoebe’s Medical Tower I and the hospital’s main entrance.

The 2,000 pavers (to date) memorialize loved ones, celebrate the birth of children, honor hospital retirees.

“The reasons (for which people buy pavers) span every wonderful tribute there is,” said the foundation’s vice president and executive director, Tom Sullivan, who purchased pavers after the births of his daughters.

Much like Torrellas, Maj. Gen. Willie Williams can’t visit the grave site of his daughter, Yolanda Williams, anytime he pleases. While his daughter rests in Alabama, Maj. Gen. Williams, commanding general of Marine Corps Logistics Command, is stationed in Albany.

“It certainly is in synch with my thoughts that her spirit will live through eternity,” said Williams, who offered that he has good days and “OK” days in coping with Yolanda’s unexpected death. “I can come visit.”

The officer said the paver in memory of his 33-year-old daughter was a gift to the Williams family from friends Tim and Esther Martin.

“We certainly were inspired by him doing that,” Williams said.

When Tommy Tharp’s father passed away in September, Tharp’s co-workers pitched in for a paver in memory of Page Tharp.

“I thought it was a mighty nice gesture,” Tommy Tharp said after the ceremony, for which dozens gathered.

“It’s just gratifying to know that people would care enough and are concerned enough ... to give,” said Page Tharp’s widow, Patricia Tharp.

The ceremony was highlighted with white roses, speakers, of whom at least one read a Biblical passage, as well as vocalist Marcy McCarty and the Dougherty Comprehensive High School Chorale, whose music left many listeners in awe.

According to the ceremony program, 118 people were honored with pavers this year. Of those, 56 were dedicated to Phoebe retirees, some of whom were employed at the hospital for 40 or more years.

“It grows a little bit every year, which is actually a testament to the program,” Sullivan said. “It’s a community- oriented tribute where you actually support a good cause.”

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