One of the highlites of Graham's life was helping customers at the HerbFest. He spent his early years working with his Mom and Dad in Cameron Park Botanicals Herb Shop and grew up learning to grow, propagate, cook, craft, and even make potpourri from the herb plants in our yard.

With the arrival of his two sisters, Janna and Paige he spent less time in the shop and more time on the mulch piles playing with his sisters and also in the greenhouse helping them learn to grow herbs from seeds and plugs. He loved having the Friday off from school to help with HerbFest, his principal; David Mahaley, always realized how important it was to Graham. Graham wanted to help the customers, so he would be allowed to work on Friday, the first day of HerbFest.

He earned a few tips from customers as he would help them transport their herb purchases to the car and as they walked he was an encyclopedia of knowledge on what to do with these herb "weeds". He loved helping.

Also being a tuba player he would work with the Franklin Academy Jazz Band led by Lisa Burns and on Saturdays they played at the HerbFest. It was here many locals discovered the talent of the students at Franklin Academy and many invites followed for them to perform at local functions.

Graham had a green thumb and our house always had an abundance of herbs and perennials he collected. For fun he would go to "From the Garden", owned by Jennifer Terry, a garden shop in one of the historic buildings owned by the Johnsons and there he would work with Jennifer in exchange for one of her unusual perennials she sold. It was a true labor of love. We're proud of who he was and what he did in such a short life, but through the HerbFest he impacted many positively. As we've tried to turn the HerbFest into a healthy lifestyle festival as well as a spring festival vacation we're sure our son would be pleased with the knowledge we try to generate not only about our herbs and lifestyle but about his dedication to the below motto that he lived.

Today there is a lovely bronze plaque on the outside of Franklin Academy honoring Graham's life. On it is featured his tuba, he affectionately named "Lucille" and the motto everyone at Franklin Academy adopted after his tragic death--

" Life Is For The Living "