Whether working in the gardens at the Weymouth Center, planting beds at the Horticultural Gardens at Sandhills Community College or helping plan the gardens at FirstHealth’s new Hospice House, Mary Jane Knight is always prepared to “dig in.”

Her work with Hospice goes back three decades, when she became the first treasurer of the all-volunteer Sandhills Hospice. Through the years, as she saw what Hospice could do to help patients and their families as they faced life-limiting illness, Mary Jane kept the idea of a hospice house in the back of her mind.

Just as she sows a garden, she sows the seeds of philanthropy with her charitable gift annuities and bequests to the FirstHealth Hospice Foundation. Along with the financial support of other generous donors, FirstHealth Hospice House is now about to bloom.

 “As the saying goes, ‘you reap what you sow.’ Today, I can truly say that my 30 years of work in both of my labors of love – gardening and philanthropy – have come to fruition.”