Updated at: 11/07/2009 1:23 PM | KSAX.com
By: Megan Brown
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Fighting Spirit of Erhard Boy Felt in Local Garden: Spiritual Sites Part 2

ERHARD, Minn. - Despite the season some say his fighting spirit is felt in the flowers that grow there.

“Just like Adam, every spring they stubbornly fight for life and that’s what the garden is about,” Kim Pederson said.

Created in memory of the 15-year-old boy who lost a life long battle with the very rare Batten’s disease, it’s a garden that now grows and glows in his honor.

 “It grew out of I think any parent’s worst nightmare to lose their child,” Kim said.

“It just has this way about it. There’s an energy here.”

Today folks from far and wide come to talk to the boy who some say’s spirit is still felt.

“I’ve had people that I don’t really know…in fact, one lady in particular walked up to me and said ‘You don’t know me but I know Adam is an angel,” Kim said. “She said I never knew Adam, but he has come to me in the garden and he’s helped me many times when I’ve been afraid or lonely or just needing comfort.”

Kim also said she’s heard other people say they come and stand in the center circle before the cross. “They say they can feel an energy,” she said.

Unable to walk in the end, Kim says Adam’s presence is even felt in the rocks, which she says represent his freedom in walking with them today.   

“He walked as a little baby and as a two-year-old but the fact that he walks with us now…” Kim said.

“Adam is here now. I mean there is never a time that I am here that I don’t feel Adam,” Adam’s dad Jerry said.

A very special someone whose zest for life can still be felt and a fighting spirit that can still be found in the garden.

“We just tried to make sure we do something positive with his memory because he was such a great kid, Kim said.

 Here are the other two installments of the KSAX Eyewitness News central Minnesota Spirtual Sites Series:

Believers find Healing Power at Priest's Gravesite: Spiritual Sites Part 1

Some say Lady of the Hills Cancer Curing: Spiritual Sites Part 3

Written for the web by Megan Brown

mbrown@ksax.com