Therapeutic garden unearths soldier’s will

Therapeutic garden unearths soldier’s will
Beauregard Daily News
By Kathy Ports
Posted Dec. 13, 2013

Working in a therapeutic garden she helped develop has given Staff Sgt. Carolyn Darnell, a demobilized National Guard soldier in the Warrior Transition Unit, the strength to emerge from her room and the motivation to begin working her way out of her depression.

“Working in the garden allows you to let your mind go,” she said. “I gently planted those plants, nurtured them, watched them grow and it gave me the strength to come out of the dark cave I was in."

Darnell deployed to Iraq twice –– 2004 to 2006 and 2007 to 2009. From 2009 to July 2012, she was mobilized at Camp Shelby, Miss. Each deployment took its toll.

“My first deployment was tough," she said. We sustained a lot of mortar attacks. One time, I was on the phone with my mother and the shelling started. I really thought that I was going to die that night and I didn’t want my mother to be on the other end of the telephone if the end came."

The first deployment had more tough lessons in store for Darnell.
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