Editor’s Desk: Vale to Stan Maley, who knew how to stop and smell the roses

It’s a lesson lost of most of us. But Stan Maley was smarter than most. He knew how important the small things in life were. How much beauty could be taken just by smelling a flower or by sitting in a luscious garden or talking a walk in nature. Stan simply knew how to stop and smell the roses. How healing nature could be for the soul. As the Midwest Times’ gardening guru over the past decade through his weekly column Garden of Life, Stan was welcomed into countless homes, listened to people’s stories about how their gardens came to be and offered thousands of tips and advice, which was followed by many of our readers. During his many treatments and procedures — right up until he had to go into palliative care — Stan always managed to get his columns done, even when I stressed to him to put his health first. In fact, he insisted. I think continuing the Garden of Life for as long as he could was a much-welcomed salve and distraction for him. Stan knew the end was coming. He had been battling terminal cancer for a while, so while news of his passing at the weekend at the age of 83 is not shocking, it still sent a ripple of sadness through the community he contributed to so much. His love of all things gardening shone through in his column. But what shone even brighter was his love for the Geraldton community. Key among his community achievements was founding the Friends of Geraldton Gardens or FroGGs. Described as “chief bullfrog”, Stan’s vision was to create a community garden in Maitland Park. In mid-2020, Stan told this paper that he had a lot of croaking to do before his final croak. And in those 18 months, Stan achieved a lot on his pet project, but unfortunately didn’t see it come to fruition. The baton has been passed to his friends at FroGGs, who are determined to get this garden built in Stan’s memory. It will be a wonderful legacy to a wonderful man, who will be missed by many. In tribute to Stan, let’s not forget to stop to smell the roses once in a while. Vale Stan Maley. Hope there is an eternal garden of life somewhere you are enjoying.