Seese-Thornton Garden of Tranquility

The Duke Cancer Patient Support Program’s (DCPSP) Seese-Thornton Garden of Tranquility offers cancer patients and their families a quiet place for meditation and reflection.

The garden is a place of comfort to sort out the overwhelming emotions brought about by a life-changing disease, as well as a place for loved ones to remember and memorialize those who have been touched by cancer.

For many years, Rachel Schanberg and other friends of the DCPSP and the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center dreamed of a garden where patients, families and staff members could enjoy a beautiful, tranquil area as a respite from the clinic routine.

That dream became a reality when the Seese- Thornton Garden of Tranquility was formally dedicated on November 8, 2003.

The garden contains a beautiful sculpture The Promise by gifted artist John Safer. The shape is simple, but evocative. The upward spiraling form is traditionally one of hope, a feeling echoed by the title of the work.

Each year, we host the annual Spring Garden Celebration to celebrate the sense of life and hope brought by the Garden. We also dedicate newly named trees, benches, and bricks, and the donors and honorees named in the Garden of Tranquility.

Garden Relocation

The Seese-Thornton Garden of Tranquility will need to be relocated as part of construction projects, including a new major hospital addition. The design shows taking key elements from the existing garden and using them in a new layout. These key elements include statues, plaques, vegetation, brick pavers, etc.  

The temporary relocation of the Seese–Thornton Garden of Tranquility will have a remaining improvement to the area even after the Garden finds its permanent home when the construction projects are complete. 

DCPSP Dedications in the Seese-Thornton Garden of Tranquility

Walk of Honor 

• Rachel Schanberg Walk of Honor

Other Dedications

• Special Trees Dedicated by the Cancer Support Program
• Trees in Honor or Memory
• Benches in Honor or Memory
• Bricks in Honor or Memory
• Other Honors and Memorials

For more information about the garden or to make a contribution to the garden, please contact Mia Shackleford at 919-684-4497.

Locations

This service is available at:

• Morris Cancer Clinic
  Morris Building, 200 Trent Drive, Durham, NC 27710