Lauren Green and Diana Lemon at Dream’s Garden. Photo supplied
A commemorative garden and healing center has recently opened in Ossining, to honor the short but impactful life of Dream Ioni Shepherd, who died in August 2021 at the age of 16.
Dream was the first child of Ossining native Diana Lemon: “I had Dream when I was twenty years old,” Lemon explains, “and I always say she and I grew up together. I did know she was going to be born with sickle cell disease which is an inherited blood disorder. And being a young mother, not really sure, it was a case of just learning as we went.”
Sickle cell can lead to painful blood crises and Dream, at about age 5, had one at kindergarten. Her life was saved by the swift action of her teacher, Miss Patterson, and the eventual outcome was the passing of the Shepherd Patterson Law which requires a physician who treats a minor patient with a life-threatening medical condition to provide certain educational information to the patient’s parents.
At 10, Dream participated in a cell transplantation study whereby she would receive healthier stem cells from her mother through an extensive process of depletion of her immune system followed by infusion. “The transplant took, but Dream had to go through hell,” Lemon recalls. The process also gave rise to Lemon’s advocacy on Dream’s behalf. A paralegal by trade and a passionate mother, she worked tirelessly, reaching out to State Sen. David Carlucci and Assemblywoman Sandy Galef to assist her in a battle to get Dream the nursing she needed. Four years of lobbying resulted in Dream’s Law which improved healthcare access on discharge.
A ribbon cutting ceremony for Dream’s Garden was held on Aug. 23. Photo supplied
“It was a bittersweet moment, because in that same month of December 2019, when Governor Cuomo signed the legislation into law, Dream began to complain about a pain in her arm,” Lemon continues. “We thought we were at the finish line, victory, we had won, we beat sickle cell, we got this legislation passed, only to find out that we were about to be in the fight of her life.”
Dream’s diagnosis, at age 15, was osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive bone cancer, caused by the radiation used during the transplant. A grueling round of chemotherapies and procedures followed. But Dream was tired and began to reach for more natural methods of healing, which is how Lemon reconnected with Lauren Green, an apothecary practitioner whom she’d known from school days.
Also, at this late moment, Dream told her mother she wanted to start a community garden. But the illness couldn’t be defeated, and Dream died. Lemon was hit with a wave of anger and grief, “And then at some point I started thinking about the garden.” Lemon contacted Green again, “And what came out of that was the decision to put together a few longstanding dreams that intertwined and interwove the three of us,” adds Green.
Assisted by U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, they won a federal grant for $2 million for their community garden. Lemon’s first thought was to find a location on Main Street, which had been renamed after Dream as Dream Shepherd’s Way. But eventually they settled on a 2.9-acre space at 50 Spring Valley Road, to become a holistic experience combining transformative community garden and wellness hub. “We wanted to create a legacy center,” Green explains. “It was about expanding the definition of legacy, at multiple levels. The legacy of wellness, how people carry forward the wealth of health.” The center will offer four paths of programs: horticultural therapy, farm to table, gardening 101, and soil to soul. It will mostly be open to all and mostly free or donation-based.
The Grand Rising of Dream’s Garden was held in August 2025 and Dream’s ashes have been placed there. Now Lemon and Green are seeking more financial support to fully realize Dream’s sanctuary and extend healing to others. As they comment, “We like to say that Dream planted the seed and we just watered it.”
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