For nearly 17 years Steve Carara was the manager, the main worker, and the mind behind the garden at the Sonoma Garden Park. His death from heart failure on May 13 has been felt by all associated with the Garden. Rebecca Kelly, who worked with Steve the last two years as assistant manager, says that everyone who knows the Garden can feel that he is not there any more. Kelly added that she could never have imagined someone as dedicated as he was.
Describing him as “the best co-worker I ever had,” she explained that he would research and figure out at night how to do something new to him. She attributed amazing ingenuity to him, adding that she used to say that if Steve couldn’t do it, she assumed it couldn’t be done. Kelly affirmed that he was behind what the Garden Park is today, the vision, the infrastructure, the plants and the work entailed. His wife, Sue Carara, related that Steve made a spreadsheet at the start of each new year, to outline all the work to be done in the Garden the upcoming year. And he did much of the work himself, including installing the irrigation, the sidewalks, many of the garden boxes. But, his co-worker said, when people expressed appreciation for the Park,“He modeled humility,” always crediting his crew of four regular volunteers, men like him in their 70s who come every week to work there, and all the other volunteers.
Kelly continued, “It was a very profound experience to work with him. “He was a good soul, a good guy, and caretaker of a place so uniquely special that his effect hit and rippled out to hundreds of people.” Carara’s wife Susan confirmed this, relating that time and again when they were out somewhere together, someone she didn’t know – often a young person or a child – would greet him, “Hi, Steve.”…