Ground Cover September [Fall Edition 2016] | Page 5

Pictured from left to right: Sue Mason, Mick Mason, Sharon Trenholm,
Charles Trenholm, Karin Spisak and Julianne Rossman.

BUTTERFLY GARDEN MEMORIAL

The team sponsoring the Butterfly Garden
Memorial is from the Honor Flight of Greater
Dubuque. Honor Flight is a non-profit
organization created solely to honor America’s veterans
for all their sacrifices.

POND DRAINED FOR MAJOR REPAIR

You may notice that our Japanese Garden pond is under
re-construction. There was a window of time where a
construction crew could get in to re-do the lining of the
pond. The current liner is over 25 years old and no longer
able to hold water like it should. We appreciate our visitors’
patience while we get the pond back into shape.

Their Mission: To transport America’s veterans to
Washington, DC, to visit those memorials dedicated to
honor the service and sacrifices of themselves and their
friends. Top priority is given to the senior
veterans – World War II survivors, along with
those veterans who may be terminally ill.
Dubuque hosted 10 Honor Flights. Polly
Mason was an integral part of that team.

As always, there are many volunteers who do the work
to prepare for construction. A special thanks for Howard
McLean and Wylie Bledsoe’s leadership.
What about the koi fish? One of our volunteers, Kelly
Goossen, took care of the koi over the winter in the City of
Dubuque greenhouse and she developed a friendship with
her fishy friends. The three largest fish are named Phantom,
Ghost and Whale. The koi in the pond have been well fed
this season as they swim right up to anyone walking past the
pond. The fish have been transferred to Eagle Point Park so
we can complete the repairs on the Japanese Garden pond.
Many thanks to the City of Dubuque for their assistance in
housing the koi again
this year. We will see
the koi return next
spring (and probably
many baby fish as well).

Polly Mason

Polly was born on April 10, 1956, in Dubuque.
She was expected on April Fool’s day but
tricked everyone and made them wait 10 more days.
She graduated from Dubuque Senior High School with
the class of 1974 and married Perry Mason of Dubuque
on September 25, 1987, at St. Patrick Catholic Church,
because she needed a good lawyer. (Note: he’s not really
a lawyer.)
Polly worked as a travel agent for more than 20 years
until her pride and joy, Anthony, was born. Then Polly
turned her attention to her family and was busy as
ever caring for everyone who needed her. Polly was
a wonderful daughter, mother, wife, sister, caretaker,
neighbor, and daughter-in-law because she was always
there to pitch in.
Polly volunteered her time to the success of the third of
July Fireworks and Air Show and Honor Flight of Greater
Dubuque by extending her warm hospitality to the
traveling military. Polly had the most delightful wit and
found humor in every situation. She loved to entertain,
read and truly appreciated beauty in God’s
earth and had little garden retreats all around
her house every spring.
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