When Lisa Story plunged her hands into the soil of her backyard garden more than a decade ago, she was trying to survive her own grief.
A licensed professional counselor with decades of hospice and bereavement experience, Story understood the psychology of loss better than most. But when her father died — and the unprocessed grief of her mother’s death 20 years earlier surged back with it — she found that knowledge offered little comfort. Instead, she turned to the one place that had always felt safe: nature.
“My dad was an avid outdoorsman,” Story recalls. “I do not remember a time in childhood that I was not outside in nature with him. And so, for me, I went to nature to find a way to heal.
“As I began to dig in the earth around the new existing Iris Respite House, I started to feel whole again.”
In 2010, she started Hope Grows at 183 Shafer Road in Moon Township, to serve caregivers and grieving individuals across the region.
While studying horticultural therapy, Story envisioned gardens intentionally designed to promote healing and reflection. While she worked on the gardens, her neighbor began noticing just how much transformation was happening next door. When Story shared her dream of opening her home as a respite space for caregivers, the neighbor revealed a piece of history: the land beneath the Iris Respite House had once belonged to a woman who willed it to her own caregivers as a thank-you at the end of her life.
“For me, the whole mission became full circle,” Story says. “This is more than just an idea. This is divine.”
That mission took clearer shape after Story reviewed national data from MetLife and AARP on caregiver needs. The top needs were simple, but rarely met: self-care, empowerment and a change of environment.
Hope Grows would become a place that offered all three.
Fourteen gardens, countless pathways to healing
Today, the Iris Respite House and its surrounding 2½ acres host 14 themed therapeutic gardens, each intentionally designed to activate the senses and support healing. Every garden includes seating, natural focal points and suggested activities.
Each garden is therapeutic and stress reducing, and each attracts all five senses, Story explains.
One of the most active spaces is the Pollinating Garden, known as The Garden of Transitions. In the summer, it buzzes with children attending Hope Grows’ pollination-themed camp, where participants learn not only about bees and butterflies but also about caregiving. Each child creates a “make-two, give-one” project and is encouraged to deliver one of the items to a caregiver in their community.
“It’s a beautiful way to teach awareness and generosity,” Story says. “We get nearly 90 children each summer.”
While Hope Grows began with a focus on caregivers, the mission expanded as Story witnessed a consistent truth: “Every caregiver that comes through the door has some loss that they’re working through.”
As a result, the organization now provides grief support with mental health counseling. The Root of Good Care program functions like a private practice and bills insurance. Clients come for support with grief, anxiety, depression, stress management and caregiving-related strain. For those unable to afford co-pays, Hope Grows uses donated funds to ensure no one is turned away.
The same is true for overnight stays in the nonprofit’s bed-and-breakfast-style respite rooms. Caregivers and grieving individuals can book restorative stays on site, with funds available for those who cannot cover the cost.
2025 retreat sets tone for future
In November, Hope Grows hosted a two-day retreat for caregivers, which stemmed from the work of Michelle Mikus, a hospice pharmacist completing her public health internship with the organization. Mikus surveyed hospice professionals nationwide, collecting nearly 100 responses — a 75% response rate that far exceeded expectations. Professionals overwhelmingly identified the same gap: caregivers’ emotional, spiritual and psychosocial needs are not being fully met, and many caregivers don’t know where to find support, even when programs like Hope Grows exist.
The retreat invited caregivers to talk about those issues.
One participant shared how unexpectedly impactful the experience was:
“I didn’t realize how much I needed a space like this until I arrived. The warmth, kindness, and genuine listening from both the Hope Grows staff and other attendees made me feel seen in a way I haven’t felt in a long time.”
Another described the rare sense of belonging that emerged over the two days:
“Hope Grows created an environment where people could safely open up, reconnect with themselves, and find camaraderie they didn’t know they were missing.”
The retreat’s success has set the stage for a multiphase Legacy Project, including: a book compiling caregivers’ stories, a documentary exploring caregiving and grief, and an ongoing series of future retreats planned for 2026.
Many of the 2025 retreat participants have already volunteered to work on the project, as well as new programs like Grief Soup, in which the Hope Grows chef will prepare soup for volunteers to deliver to caregivers within their own communities.
When you’re grieving or caregiving, comfort food becomes more important, Story says. Soup is a way to provide nutrition and comfort in difficult times.
Grief Soup is one of the core focus areas of Hope Grows’ end-of-year giving campaign, which includes mental health counseling, overnight stays for caregivers and The Legacy Project.
Learn more about Hope Grows at hopegrows.org.
Great article. The Kennedy Garden Club goes there every year to collect seeds from the many plants that are in the gardens. We use them for our seed swap and also to give away at various events.