Dedication of Natalie's Corner slated for 10 a.m. Saturday at Central Park
Spectacular splashpad at Natalie's Corner will be open all day
Saturday marks the grand opening of Natalie's Corner in Central Park, featuring a beautiful splashpad along with landscaping, shade structures and picnic areas. The short opening ceremony will take place at 10 a.m., then gates to the splashpad will be opened wide for an attraction that will always be free of charge. Natalie's Corner has been developed over several years to honor Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona who was killed in the line of duty on the evening of January 10, 2019. Natalie's parents, Merced and Lupe, and her three sisters, Jackie, Kathy and Cindy, will be in attendance on Saturday and organizers hope a large crowd will turn out to let Natalie's family know how much our community loved her and the service she gave to our town.
What follows is the column I wrote for The Davis Enterprise shortly after Natalie's death.
As I dropped off our three youngest daughters at Davis High School one rainy morning this week and watched them walking together onto the campus, chatting and laughing as sisters do, I couldn't help but think of Natalie Corona and her brave but heartbroken family.
Our hearts break with them, though in a much different way and from a much greater distance.
My oldest daughter, a Davis native who graduated from Davis High 25 years ago, took her two young daughters to the site where Natalie died to deliver a note, and told me later that "Natalie's memorial spot on Fifth Street is the saddest thing in Davis that I can remember."
It's the same for me and for so many of my fellow citizens, no matter how long they've called Davis home.
Trying to make sense of the senseless, Davis Poet Laureate James Lee Jobe achingly wrote, in part: "The door is open, Officer Corona. It's time to say goodbye. The door is open, Officer Corona. Your watch is over."
Even though many of us - perhaps most of us - had never met Natalie, I can't remember a time when I've seen our town, or any town, so united in love and concern and support for one of our own.
We all now know about her small hometown of Arbuckle, and that she was a proud and popular graduate of Pierce High School, where among other things she played basketball for the Blue and Gold Bears and was selected Homecoming Queen.
We also know she wanted to be in law enforcement from a very young age and determinedly went through the rigors necessary to accomplish that dream.
It's clear she saw a career in law enforcement not only as a way to protect people, but also as a way to serve us in a variety of ways. That's why she served so long as a Community Services Officer in Davis without pay. Put simply, she wanted to help.
We've heard stories of her giving money to the homeless she would encounter in town and of delivering necessities to families displaced by the recent fire that devastated Paradise.
And, sadly, we all know how quickly and tragically and heartlessly her life was ended by a complete stranger who seemed hell-bent on randomly killing a Davis Police officer.
Was he mentally ill? Seemingly so, but there are millions of people in this country with mental illness and very few of them decide it's time to take the life of another in such a horrific way.
So far, everyone who knew Natalie in her 22 years on this earth or had encountered her even only once has been full of praise for her dedication to service, her kindness and her willingness to understand the needs, fears and hopes of others.
She was exactly the kind of cop we want patrolling the streets of this city we all love.
Many of us were struck by the beautiful photograph of Natalie, arms outstretched, extending a version of the American flag known as the "Thin Blue Line" flag several years before she became a Davis police officer.
Accompanying the photo, Natalie wrote, "I would like this photograph to serve as my gratitude for all those law enforcement men and women who have served, who are currently serving and those who have died in the line of duty protecting our liberties in this great country."
For many of us, it was the first time we had seen the "Thin Blue Line" flag.
The photo was posted with love and with pride and with respect for those who work in law enforcement. In it, she looks happy and joyful and free as a breeze, proud in the very best of ways. It is indeed one of the most striking and beautiful photographs I've seen in a long time.
For now, our love and our prayers and our very souls should be turned toward the Corona family, holding them all up as high as we can and thanking them for the gift of Natalie, who died trying to make our town a better
place for all of us.
Reach me at bobdunning@thewaryone.com
The Corner Where Courage Blooms
(for Officer Natalie Corona)
Here, where the water leaps into light,
we remember a woman who leapt first—
into duty,
into service,
into a promise to keep us safe.
She was not born into power,
but into purpose.
From Arbuckle’s small streets
to Davis’s open doors,
she carried the kind of bravery
that wears no crown
yet stands taller than any throne.
She gave without asking—
coins for the cold,
hands for the hurting,
a shield for the strangers
who would one day call her their own.
The night that took her
could not take her light.
It is here now—
in the splash of water,
in the shade of trees,
in the laughter that rings free of fear.
Natalie’s Corner is not just a place—
it is a promise:
that service matters,
that kindness counts,
that courage can outlast grief.
Today, we gather not in silence,
but in gratitude,
not to close her watch,
but to keep it.
Because every child who plays here
runs in the freedom she protected.
And so her story is not ended—
it is written in the spray of this fountain,
the roots of these trees,
the heart of this city.
Natalie Corona—
your corner is the whole world you made better.
Inspired by the writing of Bob Dunning
Thank you for your heartfelt sentiments.