QR code added to Children’s Memory Garden of Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A memorial garden in the heart of Nashville honors more than 250 young people whose lives were cut short by an act of violence.

Centennial Park is home to more than just visitors and park-goers. In a small corner, a structure highlights a big issue — children taken by violence.

“Right now, in the garden, we have over 250 children,” founder of nonprofit You Have the Power , Andra Conte, told News 2. “These are all under the age of 17 and as young as 2 or 3 weeks.”

In the corner of the park sits a structure resembling a lighthouse. The open top of the lighthouse allows light to spill outward and become a beacon at night. The lighthouse, designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects , holds limestone plaques engraved with the names of children, all taken violently in Davidson County.

“We knew their names, but we didn’t know their stories,” Conte added. “We didn’t know their families.”

However, for those that want to know the story and the personality behind each name, the organization has added a QR code that reveals their stories.

“The QR code will give the opportunity for people to really learn what this is about,” You Have the Power board chair, Irma Paz-Vernstein, said.

Visitors can read stories like that of Abiel Euceda Castro :

Abiel Euceda Castro enjoyed basketball, video games and school. Popular with students and
teachers alike, the Opportunity Academy 8th-grader came to the United States from Honduras when he was six years old. He struck up a friendship with a youngster named Dennis, who became his very best buddy. Abiel was a happy, special child, said his parents. And he believed in Santa Claus. When Abiel was 10 years old, he wrote a letter to Santa asking for a little brother. Soon after, baby Etan came along, and Abiel was certain Santa was real. “He thought [Etan] was a gift,” said mom Odali Castro. On August 22, 2022, Abiel died from a gunshot wound. In May of 2023, Opportunity Academy invited Abiel’s parents to attend what would have been their son’s graduation. There, students presented the couple with a booklet paying homage to the much-loved and much-missed Abiel.

“When you talk about them alive, you know how vulnerable we are,” Paz-Vernstein said. “It humanizes the realities. It’s not just something that we hear about. It’s not just a statistic. It is a human being.”

The latest volume of “Voices from the Garden,” featured the names of five children who were killed in 2022:

• Abiel Jafet Euceda Castro: May 21, 2009 to Aug. 22, 2022
• Nancy Mariela Choc Hernandez : Nov. 18, 2007 to Oct. 19, 2022
• Deacon Elijah Lane: May 20, 2022 to June 28, 2022
• Dominic J. Pirtle: March 3, 2005 to May 6, 2022
• Malia Januece Powell: Feb. 20, 2008 to June 20, 2022

Other children were lost to violence in 2022, but many of their cases are still under review.

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