Secret Garden

A thing happened yesterday while gardening.

One of our neighbors, an older lady, came by and we started talking.  It turns out her son, in his early 50s, whom we had briefly met and liked, had just died of cancer.  She was in the midst of grieving and sorting his things.  It was hard for her to mow and maintain the yard, so I agreed to help out.  [Don’t throw me in the briar patch! ;D]  E and I listened to her story and consoled her a little, and then I got to work cleaning up the neglected property and mowing it.

It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, because she gets much-needed help and neighbors to confide in, and I’m allowed to manage plants and materials as needed!  She pays for mower gas.  I get to play in the secret garden!  There are all kinds of cool shade perennials, wildflowers, and fruit bushes hiding in the neglected tangle, which I can clean up and transplant if needed.  This is my ideal habitat, so the neighbor and I are both happy.  She couldn’t believe I was so eager to oblige!

So that happened.  In keeping with the theme of death and life, here’s a cemetery we dropped by yesterday, as we occasionally do, to visit one of E’s great grandmothers.

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