AUBURN — Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice hosted a ribbon-cutting event unveiling its Stone Garden on Oct. 17. The garden represents the migration of the spirit for the patients and their families who are cared for at its hospice house.

Julie Shackley, president/CEO; Mary MacMahon, foundation chairwoman, Karen Flynn, hospice director; sisters and artists Lucie and Dianne Boucher, along with 25 guests, staff and community members joined in the celebration. Claudia Takacs, wife of the late Antony Takacs who created the iron stands for the bowls, was also present to dedicate the new garden.

The Stone Project represents the migration of the spirit. After the actual loss of a loved one, perhaps the greatest challenge for a survivor is letting go emotionally. While the passage of time itself works to this end, ceremony and the physical things which embody a ceremony can make this easier, both pointing the way and leading the survivor to a peaceful acceptance.

These are the ideas behind stone garden, a collection of fused glass vessels arranged to symbolize the emotional letting go of a loved one. Stones originally placed in a bowl inside the hospice house are moved, first outside and then, through the descending sequence of five vessels, to the ground and the environment from which all life originates.

This “Migration of the Spirit” is a collective artistic effort of professional glass artist Lucie Boucher of Stone Ridge Glass and her sister Dianne Boucher, science teacher and artist-in-training.