"He has the deed half done who has made a beginning."     "Rose Garden refuge still going strong" Diagnosis of liver cancer for founder hasn't changed mission... By Clay Coppedge November 22, 2002 Belton---Al Slaton was diagnosed with liver cancer a day after Christmas last year. Doctors told him he had four months to live. Nearly 11 months later, on Wednesday, Slaton sat in the Rose Garden office with his wife Sherri and talked about the mission of the Rose Garden in the days ahead and his own ill health. "People might have the idea the Rose Garden has closed down," Slaton said. "It hasn't closed down." "I'm not physically or mentally able to keep it going but I have turned it over to Sherri and she's doing a good job." "She just needs some sponsors to help her keep up with some of the things that need to be done." Slaton started the Rose Garden in 1980 as a refuge for the homeless and the mentally ill, especially those with no money or insurance, people the state could not or would not take in. In the 22 years since Al Slaton started the Rose Garden in a row of houses on Avenue A, he has received warm praise, plaques, certificates and awards from ministers, judges and advocates for the rights of the mentally ill. At the same time, Slaton and the Rose Garden have done battle with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Department of Human Services, Central Texas Mental Health and Mental Retardation and the Texas Attorney General's office. While he was in and out of court, donations from Dallas philanthropist Jess Hay and others kept the Rose Garden going. The people who found their way to the Rose Garden were people the state would not take in, people without money or insurance, with no visible means of support. "The same state agencies that sent those people to me tried to close me down for taking care of them," he said. "I'll never understand that." Slaton has, for almost a year, fought the cancer that is killing him with the same determination that marked his efforts to keep the Rose Garden open for more than two decades. "You would be surprised how many prayers have been made on my behalf at special masses, covenants and through outright Christians," he said. "That and my determination to live have seen me through, but I believe very strongly most of the credit has to go to the people who have prayed for me." His hospice caretaker, Tom Atwood with Scott and White Hospice, has known him since 1980 and has, he said, long admired him. "The thing that stands out in my mind about Al is how he had the courage to reach out to those people and offer them the love and support they could not find anywhere else," Atwood said. Atwood said it is his belief that Al Slaton has survived so long because God is not yet through with him. "I believe he has some more lessons to teach or more people to touch," Atwood said. "His work here is not finished." As was usually the case when he ran the Rose Garden, Slaton's primary concern these days is money. It takes about $9,000 to keep the Rose Garden running, and donations have dwindled since he was diagnosed with cancer. During that time, Sherri Slaton has initiated improvements and renovations on the assortment of properties on Avenue A that constitute the Rose Garden. She has started a newsletter and a website and visited with the city and state agencies for advice and help in working with the community. "I'm getting the word out that we're still here," she said. "Our mission is still the same and the need is still just as great."