On Sunday, May 6, the Serna family will be holding a lighthearted garden ceremony to celebrate the life of Karina Serna, our beloved mother, wife and friend of the community, who passed after a battle with breast cancer on Dec. 23, 2017. As you may know, our mother was a passionate gardener with quite the green thumb. In order to honor this, please join us in planting perennial flowers in our home garden in memory of Karina to be cherished for years to come. We would like to open this gathering to anyone who felt Karina had an impact on their lives or held a place in their heart at any time. Please bring a flower of your choosing to plant, the necessary tools to plant it (gloves, garden trowel) as well as any memories or copies of photos you wish to share with our family. We ask that you stop by between 1 and 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 6, following which will then be a private, family-only ceremony to spread Karina’s ashes in the beautiful garden you will help us to bring to life.

A colorful, lively garden to commemorate the equally beautiful soul of Karina would not be possible without the help of our amazing community. To those who volunteered to prepare the garden for the ceremony, we would like to extend our deepest gratitude; your continued support is incredibly valuable through this process. We would also like to give a special thanks to Peter Schmidt, his family and the crew for donating their time and energy to help replace our deck — a much-needed repair on our home and an immense burden lifted from our shoulders during this difficult time of adjustment. The way in which our community comes together to help those in need is a remarkably unparalleled quality. While we mourn the loss of the anchor of our family, we are continuously reminded why she chose to move us to this beautiful community over 20 years ago.

Again, we cannot thank you all enough and we hope to see you in May.

The Serna Family, Anthony, AJ, Rhiannon and Teagan

San Juan Island