Some say your memory is the way you hold onto what you love. One local teenager is doing just that, not only for herself but for everyone dealing with loss. Our Karen Lee introduces us to a Fayetteville high schooler. After losing her father, she's now made it a mission to build a memory garden in the community.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.Y. -- Rachael Ristau, 16, says she can go on listing just how cool her dad was. That car she's sitting in was a gift for her 16th birthday, but he wasn't able to give it to her in person. Ristau's father, the person she called her "best bud", passed away from liver cancer when she was 12.

"If the person who’s supposed to take care of you for your entire life, can't take care of you then how are you supposed to take care of yourself," said Ristau.

In an attempt to save herself from a spiraling depression, Ristau started a grief group for middle school kids.

"We need to come together as a community to stop people from turning to things like cutting and suicide and teach our community that it's okay to cry and it's okay to remember. It's okay to grieve and it's okay be happy too," she said.

A common topic within the grief group is how to memorialize a loved one daily. Someone then gave Ristau the idea of a memory garden.

She's been working for the last year with a local architecture group and the land across from the post office has been designated for the project. Once completed, it will be in the shape of a ribbon to symbolize courage. Engraved bricks, that Ristau is selling to fund the project, will be laid around the area and there will be a kiosk where friends and families can write in their stories.

"When people come, they'll be able to read the names and it'll put it in that reality that you're not alone."

The high school junior may not yet know what college she wants to go to, but she does know this:

"It doesn't matter if you're black or white or purple or what college you get into or don't get into or who you're dating. It's about who you are as a person and how you use your life to affect someone else's in a way that it wouldn't have been changed if you didn't exist."

Bricks start at $40 and if you're interested in purchasing one, you can email Rachael at: ristau93@yahoo.com