There are only 44 national memorials in the United States, and one is the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco, better known as The Grove. In the late eighties, a local group of citizens wanting a space to honor the people they lost chose a neglected area of Golden Gate Park and spent countless hours turning over the earth. Eventually a verdant landscape emerged, and mourners found a healing catharsis in their continued care of the space. The Grove remained a highly personal spot of remembrance, its existence little known outside its small community of contributors, until it was designated a national memorial in 1996. Public attention grew, and local officials made plans to erect a more official monument. But now a battle has emerged between those who want to preserve the personal scale of the Grove and those who want to memorialize the AIDS epidemic for future generations. This is the story of both sides. How do we properly commemorate a tragedy that has been marginalized despite the death of over 500,000 people?  RM