Carole Smitherman’s eyes were red when she lowered her sunglasses. Tears began to form as the retired municipal judge was greeted by her daughter Crystal as she arrived at Princeton Healing Garden in West End.

The younger Smitherman sits in the same District 6 City Council seat as her mother. Friday, she completed the final leg of a relay race, taking the baton from her mother and cementing a legacy that Carole Smitherman began two decades before. The elder Smitherman, whose resume includes being the first Black woman to serve as mayor, fought through emotion as she spoke at the ceremony, saying she truly didn’t have words to express her emotions.

“Maybe my tears represent what my heart is thinking and feeling right now,” she said. “I’m thankful. I think that would be a good word. I’m thankful for the people having entrusted their business to me and that now that legacy continues through my daughter.”

Dozens of people turned out Friday morning to rededicate the green space Carole Smitherman shepherded into existence when she was a member of the Birmingham City Council. Over the years, the garden — then known as an Intergenerational Garden — fell into disrepair due to neglect.

Carole Smitherman and her husband, Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, lost their first child, Rodric T. Smitherman, as a baby at Princeton Baptist Medical Center. The grieving mother found solace in the same space on 10th Street West, across from the hospital campus.

“It was here that I released my child back to God, and I never thought I’d have any more children, quite frankly, being very personal,” she said. “Then God gave me Crystal. She came out looking just like me and the rest of (our children) looked just like Rodger. I knew that she (Crystal) would be someone special.”

Mother and daughter recalled the then-council member taking her daughter everywhere.

“I never had a babysitter,” Carole said. “I would drag her along to meetings. She’d have her little books and … I thought she wasn’t paying attention. But as time has gone on and she’s been in this office, I see that she was.”

LaQuita Wilson worked for the former council member and is now chief of staff for the current councilor. She suggested that the gardens be restored.

“LaQuita and I … tried to find funding,” the current District 6 councilor said. “It was hard to get there, and then the beauty and the curse of the COVID pandemic happened.”

The Biden Administration created the American Rescue Plan Act, which allotted millions of dollars to help communities deal with the pandemic. Each member of the Birmingham City Council was allotted $3 million. Crystal Smitherman turned to Daniel Listi, president/CEO of Princeton Baptist Medical Center, and architect Rob Garrard.

“I said, ‘Let’s use this to help a side of town that has always felt forgotten,’” Crystal recalled saying. “If you know my mother and I’s relationship, we are as thick as thieves. That is my best friend. When I first got in office, I said, ‘Mom, one of the things I would do is preserve your legacy as your child.’ This is why this is so important. That’s why you saw us walk in together, because this is almost like a bridge between the past and the present and the future. Mom, this is for you.”

Garrard, the garden designer, said the mission was to maximize the space for the community and residents of Princeton Towers.

“I think it’s very important that everybody has an outdoor space that they can gather for whatever use, whether they want to just sit and meditate,” he said. “We did raised beds so that people could add a vegetable or two, a flower here or there, so that they could work it. (We wanted to) just create a meeting place for people and a safe meeting place so that everybody has use of it.”

That space is a safe space because of the hospital.

“It is part of Princeton Hospital property,” Listi said. “We want to maintain a safe space, so we leave it open during daytime hours. Each morning, one of my security leaders will open the gates and then, usually around 6 p.m., they’ll come by and close it for the night. We want to make sure it’s open and available. We also want to control who’s in here and make sure we know who’s here.

“The important part is that we’re here, we’re around, we’re monitoring it,” the hospital administrator said. “By controlling access and being present, we know we’re going to reduce people that shouldn’t be in the park, that aren’t necessarily enjoying the healing powers of it.”