“It just kind of evolved,” said Joanne Allen of the memorial to her son, Doug, which sits at the entryway to the Bothell park named after him.

“This entry used to be really ugly,” insisted Steven Allen, who was walking around the carefully tended garden, watering it, with of all things, a hose.

Previously, Joanne used to carry water in jugs from the other side of the field.

“It didn’t get enough water,” Joanne said, referring to the garden. “I did as much trudging back and forth as I could.”

In October 2008, the city renamed what had been the Westhill Sportsfields the Doug Allen Sportsfields (19417 88th Ave. N.E.). Some recent improvements to the monument and entryway coincided roughly and seemingly coincidentally with the third anniversary of the death of Doug Allen, 22, in September 2007 following what his mother called a “stupid accident.”

According to Joanne, Doug was camping with some friends when they began, in the paraphrased words of his mother, goofing around in a pick up truck, doing doughnuts and so on. Doug was in the bed of the truck. When it collided with a tree, he was thrown from the vehicle and killed.

“It was the kind of thing you warn kids about, that they think is not going to happen, but it does,” Joanne said.

Beginning as a seasonal worker, Doug was employed by the Bothell parks department for about four years and, again according to Joanne, spent a lot of time at the field that now carries his name.

“We didn’t really have an idea of the impact that Doug had until the funeral,” Joanne said, adding there were some 500 people in attendance.

Those gathered naturally included the parks personnel with whom Doug worked, but also a large number of other city employees. Joanne said Bothell police switched service to other jurisdictions so that all officers who wanted to attend the service could do so. Steven added Bothell flew its flags at half-mast that day.

That formerly ugly entryway now includes a raised garden area with a new sign announcing the name of the park beyond it. Joanne said a nearby bench serves as a welcome spot for moms watching their children’s soccer games. A plaque facing the field tells the story of why the fields are named after Doug. Anchored in a tree stump, a wooden carving of a dog, which Joanne said regularly gets decorated by students from neighboring Westhill Elementary School, was inspired by Doug’s longtime pet, Mack.

Keeping up the memorial largely on her own, Joanne said she spends at least several hours a week tending the spot, often greeted by Bothell city workers driving by.

As if on cue, a city employee in a marked Bothell truck cruised by at almost the moment Joanne made her comment, honked his horn and waved.

“That department, they just sort of absorbed us,” Joanne said, noting that, for example, she once asked if wood chips could be placed in the garden, and two days later, wood chips were there. In a very real way, Joanne is now a part of the parks system herself. She was recruited to run for the Bothell parks board and is in her second term.

The new watering system was Steven’s idea and consists entirely of 260 feet of PCV pipe tied down to fencing along the front of the park and linked to a water source on the other side of the field from the memorial. Joanne said she carries the removable water spigot (and some garden snippers) in her car so she can tend the memorial whenever she gets the time or the urge.

As for other improvements to the park, besides the watering system and the still-new sign, Steven said a couple of local Boy Scouts hoping to become Eagle Scouts have plans for the entrance opposite the memorial.

Understandably, Joanne said that working on the memorial, especially shortly after her son’s death, was a kind of therapy. Steven said he enjoys the memorial, but is particularly pleased it has given his wife a constructive outlet for her grief. Joanne noted she drives by the memorial regularly, taking their 17-year-old to Bothell High.

“It’s kind of nice to see this here… It’s right on our beaten trail,” Joanne said.

“I’m still overwhelmed by what the city has done,” Steven added.