Leslie loved the outdoors. She loved the flowers and playing outside. She was a beautiful child, her mother remembers.
Now Marshall and Mona Faith of Omaha are honoring their daughter Leslie who lost her life to pediatric cancer at age 2, approximately 60 years ago, with a gift to create an outdoor garden – Leslie’s Healing Garden – as part of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center’s Healing Arts Program.
“She is behind all our thoughts,” Marshall said. “It fits us as a way to put her name, in a small way, into the future.”
There will be a lot of colors, flowers, evergreens and heated paths.
“How nice it would have been to take her into a garden. I would have had to carry her, but I would have been happy to carry her into the garden we’re creating,” Mona said. “I think all children want to go out and play and that was especially true for her.”
The healing garden will serve as a place to enhance the healing process. It offers patients the opportunity to reflect and to get outside.
Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., UNMC chancellor and chairman of the Nebraska Medicine Advisory Board, said that the Faiths’ gift will be an integral part of the Healing Arts Program, which is being developed using evidence-based research to aid in the healing of patients.
“Our patients will truly benefit from Leslie’s Garden and the entire Healing Arts Program,” Dr. Gold said. “We could not be more grateful to the Faiths for their generous gift.”
Mona and Marshall Faith
From reduced pain perception, anxiety, stress, loneliness and depression to providing new insight and clarity into the feelings about a cancer diagnosis and treatment, the Healing Arts Program will include the most motivating and meaningful works of art to help heal the human spirit.
“Healing requires more than just treating patients medically,” said Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. “Studies have shown creating an atmosphere of hope and resilience through artwork goes beyond curing a disease and leads to improved patient outcomes.”
The Healing Arts Program could feature more than 200 original works of art that could reflect a diversity of cultures and perspectives, create an oasis of calm and opportunity for introspection that will motivate, rejuvenate and build endurance to fight cancer on all fronts, Dr. Cowan said.
“The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center is creating a place of continued innovation, holistic healing and an environment that serves patients beyond their expectations,” said Gail Yanney, M.D., a Healing Arts Program committee member and UNMC graduate. “Leslie’s Healing Garden is the first of many exciting announcements about the Healing Arts Program. There is a vision to present a prestigious and diverse healing art collection.”
For more information about supporting the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center’s Healing Arts Program, contact the University of Nebraska Foundation’s Amy Volk at 402.502.4112 or amy.volk@nufoundation.org.
Web Extras
Watch this video where the Faiths share their story of Leslie.