In Memory of Sandy Poehling

by Amy Dixon

This past spring, the Gardens lost a beloved friend and patron, Sandy Poehling. Known throughout the Winston-Salem community as a gracious hostess, expert gardener, and inspiring human, Sandy Poehling’s positivity reflected into all those she met. I never had the pleasure of meeting or knowing Sandy, but desperately wish I had. Her strength, determination, and welcoming spirit are still palpable within the community—traits that are rife within those that knew her best. I connected with several of Sandy’s close friends so they could relay their memories of her and help me to better understand just how much she meant to them. Close friends Annamarie D’Souza and Sandy High both regarded Sandy as a sister, each connecting with her in both diverse and similar ways. D’Souza and High met Sandy at different points in their lives but found profound commonalities with her. Annamarie and Sandy were friends for forty-three years, first meeting when D’Souza moved to North Carolina in the late seventies. Over the years they shared much together, such as chairing community organizations, a love of gardening and several special trips. They toured European gardens including Gravetye, Cliveden, and Sissinghurst. “She would travel far and wide to see and learn gardening techniques,” D’Souza said. “We traveled the world, she and I, to see gardens.” D’Souza described Sandy as a perennial gardener, working year-round in her two-acre garden. Reynolda Gardens became a place of information for her, as she garnered a lot of her horticulture knowledge from the adult education classes. “I think in the early years, she learned about gardening from Reynolda Gardens,” D’Souza said. “She didn’t grow up a gardener, she adopted gardening as a young adult. When we would go to Reynolda, we would go to all the classes. I think it was a place of learning, it was a place of reflection. It was a place later on where she felt she could contribute with all her learning and experience over the years.” One of the many sentiments that echoed of Sandy, was her bountiful generosity. Her meticulously cultivated home garden and conservatory was a place she readily shared with others, making it a gathering place for all. “She shared her garden like no one else,” D’Souza said. “She was one of a kind. She brought life to everything she did. She was very selfless, always putting others first, always lifting others up. She brought people together.” A friend of over thirty years, garden designer Chip Callaway worked alongside Sandy in her garden, helping to craft her vision into reality. Callaway also

personally planned the itinerary of the Poehlings’ center guild, discovering that they had many things in and D’Souza’s ‘grand tour’ of England’s great treasure common. gardens. High elaborated on Sandy’s nurturing nature, how she Callaway first met Sandy when she was chairing made everyone feel welcome and inspired. the Brenner Children’s Hospital antiques show at the “She listened to people,” High said. “I think simple Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem. Sandy elegance is a great way to describe her. She appreciated asked him to design an ambitious green entry, which other people’s differences. Sandy just shared her was all but impossible considering the time of year. knowledge, her warmth.” “She wanted me to design an entrance garden through One beautiful sentiment that High conveyed was how which attendees would pass to get into the show,” Sandy lived her life and how she tended her garden-- Callaway said. “Mind you, the show was in the dead of full of positivity, thoughtful cultivation and hope. High winter and the floor in the convention center was solid described Sandy’s garden as a display of her character. concrete. (I said) ‘Sandy, it is absolutely impossible “Her garden is who she was,” High said. “To have a to design a garden with blooming trees in the dead of garden as beautiful as hers takes a lot of hard work, it winter. They always look so forced and unconvincing.’ takes a lot of care, nurturing. And that’s what we saw She said ‘Oh, great, then you will do it? I know it will with her as a person, she nurtured everybody.” be lovely.’” “She didn’t have a negative bone “She was the only person on earth in her body, she always had hope. who could have talked me into “Her garden is who In all of her discussions with me, designing and installing blooming dogwood trees and elaborate she was... it takes a it was always the positive, trying to give guidance, trying to give the boxwood parterres on solid concrete. lot of care, nurturing. flare of hope that this will pass. And In February. She was a woman who did not know the meaning of no. And for the next thirty years, I was And that’s what we saw with her as I think that’s where you can look at the garden and reflect on Sandy’s life. The beauty that we can get is shortblessed with the love and joy of being a person...” lived, and her life was too short, for in Sandy’s gardens.” sure.” Over the next three decades, Chip Inspired by Reynolda’s 2015 and Sandy collaborated on her garden, often meeting exhibition The Artist’s Garden, Sandy’s husband Gary to discuss changes and plans in the ‘Nana Cabana’ commissioned a portrait of Sandy in her rose garden. pergola Chip designed for her. Appropriately named by Callaway suggested that Greensboro artist Jan Luytens Sandy’s grandchildren, the ‘Nana Cabana’ was inspired paint the portrait, which beautifully depicted Sandy’s by a garden pergola she had seen while vacationing in garden and her ‘simple elegance.’ Portugal. “While Sandy was flattered and thrilled that Gary “She found her inspiration and peace among the wanted to honor her with a painting, she made it clear roses and cherished perennials,” Callaway said. “It that she wanted the gardens to be the star of the show,” was there, in the Nana Cabana where we would have Callaway said. our meetings figuring out refinements to the existing Life’s fleeting beauty is captured in Sandy’s portrait, plantings, scheming to add another garden or renovate be it an ebbing rose, or a soul gone too soon. She will gardens which had aged out. It was a time of constant forever be remembered by her friends and her Reynolda renewal, and she adored responding to the seasons and family as a gracious and selfless person who sought to learning nature’s lessons, always creating a space to bring people together. Sandy Poehling will always be a delight her friends.” part of Reynolda, and her memory continues to inspire Sandy High came to know Sandy Poehling through us. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, as they both had family in the medical field. Although they had known one another since the early nineties, it was only in the last five years that they became close friends. In 2014, they began to collaborate as co-chairs of the medical