LITERARY LOCAL | Healing Gardens Creator Shares Her Soul Journey After Terminal Diagnosis
- Glancer Magazine
- Jun 2, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 10, 2025
DEBORAH MARQUI of ST. CHARLES
From the Fire into the Garden: A Healing Journey
In 1995, when author and licensed clinical social worker, Deborah Marqui received a terminal diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, she knew her healing journey would have to incorporate not only her body but also her mind and spirit. “Cancer diagnosis has a way of waking you up to life,” says Deborah. “I knew I would need to embrace a meditation practice and found being attentive to nature brings you back to your senses and keeps you in the present moment.”
Deborah felt called to create a beautiful and peaceful retreat setting that would help others connect with God through nature and offer a path to healing the soul. The Healing Gardens at her Stone Hill Farm was creatively built with serene, wooded paths and colorful perennial gardens and is open to others as a meditative sanctuary.
Cancer free from the lymphoma since 1996 and in remission from breast cancer in 2002, Deborah has written her intimate and soul-baring memoir, From the Fire into The Garden: A Healing Journey, that takes the reader through the “fire” of suffering cancer into the creation of her Healing Gardens. What began as journal entries to make sense of the sudden, shocking reality of a terminal diagnosis became a powerful raw account of the author’s transformational journey.
To read and gain a deeper understanding of Deborah’s soul journey, you can purchase her book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and in Townhouse Books in St. Charles. It can also be purchased when visiting the Healing Gardens at Stone Hill Farm. To learn more, visit www.healinggardens atstonehillfarm.com. -Mindy Kyle, Photos Submitted
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