We are so sorry to share the sad news that our dear friend Caroline (Emslie) has passed away. 

Many of you may not have known her but she was a very important part of our Green Hub journey. She joined us in October 2021, wanting to become a garden volunteer. At this stage, it was just 6 months after we had accepted our first teens into the garden and our process (and the garden) was still evolving. Meaning that her extraordinary abilities as a gardener, combined with her experience dealing with teen mental health, soon put her at the centre of our Green Hub family.

She quickly joined forces with Catherine as joint garden manager, taking over the role in full when Catherine left in July ’22. It was such a pivotal time, when we were still piecing the Green Hub jigsaw together and her ideas about working with the teens and her plans for the garden brought everything into an inspiring and powerful approach. Vanessa and Caroline soon discovered they were ‘getting stuff done’ soul mates and loved working together. 

Caroline and John Paine were soon to become a regular team in the garden midweek, together driving the many developments going on at that time. The pergola base. The green house. The cold frames. The garden tables. The shelter renovation. It was always Caroline taking charge of the instructions and John doing as he was told! Tone loved popping out to see them during her breaks, seeing the progress they’d made. 

Such was Caroline’s breadth of skillset, she was invited to join the GH Board in October 2022 and she made an immediate impact, bringing important insights about the garden and teens into decision making. 

Just a couple of months later she was diagnosed with a serious illness and was forced to step away from ‘active duty’. Throughout this last year, we have continued to regularly seek Caroline’s counsel and the question ‘what would Caroline do?’ has often been asked. News of the Green Hub, and still being able to contribute to our development, has been a really important to her these last months; our garden and purpose were simply really important to her. 

Caroline died this morning and our thoughts and prayers go to Doug, Cameron, Elliot and Jamie. Her profound impact on the Green Hub will never be forgotten and, for that reason, the Board has agreed that the Milford Garden will now be named Caroline’s Garden. 

Two weeks ago we were able to share with her a photo book of her time in the garden, along with several personal messages from the Green Hub team. We also told her that we would be naming the garden for her; she was totally overwhelmed and honoured. We just wanted her to know that her legacy was so important to Green hub.