Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Well. I have officially made the “ole’ lady in her gardening hat” status. I slept in late yesterday, to almost nine. So by the time I got up, dressed, and ate a little breakfast the sun was up high and shining down, hotly, throughout the garden.

I searched all over for my sunglasses but couldn’t find them so I decided to put on the big hat I wore from Walmart to the garden party last Monday. My neighbor Vickie was outside working in her yard and just laughed ….she said I was too dressed up to work in the yard….I agreed but I was just watering this time.

Look how beautiful our rose bush is…thanks to Vickie with all her good food she keeps feeding the bush. The second “wave” of rose blooms are just as fabulous as the first sighting. I love them!

Every day when I go out to tend to my garden I feel like I am going to school because I learn something new each day from one of my plants. Things like perseverance, wants and needs, fleeting beauty and the brevity of it all. Which, of course, makes every day with a bloom more special.

For me….summer starts off with a colorful flower in the kitchen window sill….this little red gerber just “sings” summer’s melodies….it embodies what summer should look and feel like….

The quote for the title of this blog is right…I do believe in the seed fairy. Anne gave me six moon flower seeds and told me how to plant and protect them for the first week.

Went to check on them today and look what I saw! There really are fairy seeds.

In fact…I added  a wheelbarrow filled with fairies including a miniature moon gate Anne made a couple of years ago and they live in their own little wildflower meadow. One has a bike and the others are having tea parties and picnics.

Now that I go outside each day to “play” with my flowers….I realize that in a perfect world children all around the world should have school outside in a garden too….the garden teaches math, science, history, and through English promotes storytelling and poetry about its unbelievable beauty. (The very best of school…a living school with no computer screens.)

The “secrets of life” are found in the garden. So every child graduating from “The Garden School” would be fully equipped to began their journey in the world waiting outside the garden gates.

So until tomorrow: “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”  (Marcel Proust)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Delights of the Day:

*Happy Birthday to Libby today! I think she would be the first to agree that birthdays are no longer something to dread but instead are more like a badge of honor.

Another year, still here, and thriving. After a recent medical scare, I imagine this birthday looks mighty fine. Happy Birthday Libby from all the Ya’s!

*Harriett Edwards’ husband, Ed, has been in a lot of pain from his back…I know she would appreciate prayers that the doctors find the problem and resolve it quickly.

Dear Reader:

I don’t think any school age child takes in the significance of two important words learned during grammar lessons on verb tense. The words are “was” and “is.”

The first picture of the “fledgling” garden was taken in October of 2013. The second picture was taken early last evening…June 2016. The first photo depicts a “beginning” and the second photo a “middle.” I see no “ending” to my dreams that still live in the present in the garden. As long as I am, my dreams are too.

I am sure I never fully understood the meaning when my elementary school teacher explained that “is” is an intransitive verb which means a “state of being.”

“Was” is the past tense of “is” and refers back in time to when it was still  a “state of being,” (But now it is that no longer. It is a state of non-being.)

Our whole lives are lived in the “is” stage of our life….but only remembered in the “was” stage.

I believe what got me thinking about the impact of these words in our lives was when I discovered, sadly, that Gloria Houston, one of my favorite children’s authors, died March 21, 2016. I was shocked. I knew her last updated email on her health looked pretty bleak but she was determined to keep fighting her rare cancer.

Then suddenly, the other night, her biography popped up but now all the words in it had been changed from “is’ to “was.” 

Her last email to me was to thank me for a “holding cross” I sent her for Christmas. She indicated then that she was weak and a friend was opening and reading her mail to her.

Still her spirits were good and she talked about her hope for a sequence publication to  The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree.

We are all one breath away from being removed from the “Living Catalogue” to the non-living one. It is a stark realization but a true one. One breath away from “is” to “was.”

While I was giving this some serious thought…suddenly I found myself smiling again.

“Jesus Christ ‘IS” risen today…. Hallelujah!” We don’t sing the past tense of the verb  “is”….”Jesus Christ “WAS” risen today…Hallelujah!” Christ in God is and is and is forever. Hallelujah!

So until tomorrow…Christ in God has never been, or will never be a “non-being.” He is in a perpetual state of “being” there for all of us for eternity. Now that’s something to smile about!

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

*Yesterday I was “in a state of happy being” when I met Kaitlyn and got to see Tommy’s office in Brooks Styles law office off Rivers Avenue. Later we all went  to lunch.

I was so excited. It brought back memories of traveling to different colleges to see where my three “children” were living so when we talked on the phone I had an image of their rooms and them in it.

I am so proud of Tommy and loved where his work “being” is located.

Dear Reader:

i am loving ‘six years old’ so far in Eva Cate’s development. We can have such great conversations now that make me laugh and cry at the same time. Yesterday this happened and the age-long mystery of the search for the “hidden treasure within us” was answered once again.

Eva Cate was teasing me and calling me Rebecca.…so proud she knew this was my “real” name, not Becky or Boo. I laughed but then told her about Rebekah in the Bible and how mother named me for this very special woman at the well.

She immediately asked me about her name and who she was named for. I told her she was actually named for two people….her great Aunt Eva, mother’s sister who we all adored, and Eve in the Bible. Who gave Eve her name in the Bible, she asked. God, I replied. Eva Cate, your name is quite a prestigious one because you are named for the first woman on earth created by God….her name was Eve. Eva Cate became very quiet.

And then, as only small children can do, she threw her arms wide open, swirled around, and then closed her arms hugging herself tightly. “Thank you God!” she screamed in delight. “I love my name and I love You!”

It was so completely unexpected and out of her normal character that I first laughed out loud. But as she continued to twirl and thank God for her name….I found myself misting up over the most important discovery she had just made in her short life. Eva Cate knew her greatest treasure was inside her and (more importantly)  she already knew it was God.

(Awakin Weekly/Creative Living/Elizabeth Gilbert)

Look, I don’t know what’s hidden within you. […] You yourself may barely know, although I suspect you’ve caught glimpses. I don’t know your capacities, your aspirations, your longings, your secret talents. But surely something wonderful is sheltered inside you. I say this with all confidence, because I happen to believe we are all walking repositories of buried treasure.

I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us human beings, both for its own amusement and for ours: The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.

The hunt to uncover those jewels—that’s creative living. The courage to go on that hunt in the first place—that’s what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one along our spiritual path through life. 

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

(Source: HuffPost Religion/The Meaning of Life/Rabbi Evan Moffic)

*It is June 1….Don’t forget to say “rabbit” and start the lazy, hazy days of summer on the right note…a high note!

Dear Reader:

While reading May 31’s Simple Abundance narrative for today I grew excited. It was all about creating homes filled with whimsy, wit, and childlike dreams of fantasy. Author, Breathnach, used artist/illustrator, Mary Engelbreit’s home as an example.

Engelbreit found some old children’s book classics belonging to her mother and grandmother and decided to begin her collection and decorating renovation (of her “Letter Cottage“) with that starting point.

Actress Candice Bergen once told an interviewer (who commented on how cozy her house was) that “she liked houses to be cozy, comfortable, and personal…not cluttered, but filled with interesting objects and toys and as many jokes as I can get away with.”

My favorite HGTV series is Fixer-Upper starring Chip and Joanna (Jo) Gaines from Waco, Texas. They make their living selling rather broken down homes to customers for a low price and then turning them into whimsical homes of beauty with personal mementos created by Jo for the new homeowners.

By now I have seen just about all the episodes….so I turn it on (on Tuesdays) and look for new episodes. One that really touched me was this pitiful little looking home with just a few hundred square feet in it that the Gaines miraculously turned into this adorable cottage.

When Chip brought their four children in to see mama (as he always does) before Jo pulls an ‘all-nighter’ to surprise the homeowners the next day…the youngest little girl started squealing and clapping her hands….it looked like a fairy cottage she screamed in delight…this is my favorite home of all. The tiniest house that the Gaines had ever renovated and the favorite of all the children.

I do get tickled when I watch first time house-buyer episodes. They always say something like “We want a house with character.” What they don’t realize is that the home can only have “character” if they, themselves, have it within them.

I love it when the grandchildren come to visit and one or another claps his/her hands excitedly to be here at Boo Boo’s….they all love climbing the steps leading up and down to the sunken den and kitchen while exploring through boxes of “junk” and (old Hess trucks) in magic closets that I keep put up for them.

*If children love your home…and feel comfortable in it….I, personally, think we have won the highest “seal of approval.”

Mary E. keeps her trademark black and white checked borders and bold red cherries mixed in with other colorful patterns. Hand-painted touches abound on stair railings, furniture, and floors. Across her living room heart she’s painted her personal philosophy of life: “Be warm inside and out.” 

So until tomorrow…like Duke Ellington sang: “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”  Let our lives be seen through other’s eyes as a touch of adulthood mixed with a “Peter Pan” flair.(After all don’t we all stay God’s Children, no matter our age?)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*While walking around the garden yesterday and remembering the importance of Memorial Day I “shot” a photo of a red hibiscus bloom, a white gardenia bloom, and a blue hydrangea. 

*Happy First Memorial Day our sweet Caleb! A lot of people made a huge sacrifice for you to grow up in a country where freedom is considered a birthright! One day you will understand the significance of this sacrifice. But for now….just enjoy your first Memorial Day!

*Congratulations to my daughter-in-love Mollie for making Senior Consultant in her first month selling safe beauty products with no harmful chemicals-Beauty Counter Momma. This message appeared on Facebook yesterday..

Do check Mollie out on her webpage: Beautycountermomma.

*Because my skin so sensitive to break-outs from the sun…I ordered the healthy sun screen and lotion. It’s a nice feeling to feel confident in the safety of a skin product.

Dear Reader:

Happy Memorial Day! Our family celebrated this important holiday yesterday at Mandy and John’s home, since some of the family had the day off Monday and some didn’t. Like Saturday….it was a day filled with bouts of an appearing (teasing sun) and then sudden bouts of rain throughout the day/evening in Mount Pleasant.

As far as vulnerability and life goes in our family….both drones to the Queen Bee (Eva Cate) cousin Rutledge, and brother Jake, intuitively, understand that making oneself “vulnerable” playing princess with the Queen works in the life preservation category, as well as, enduring dangerous neck chokes of affection.

The one thing that endures after a battle, conflict, or war is love. It is never destroyed. When grief strips us down to the very core of our souls we realize that “Vulnerability is the price of love and life.” The day we were born we started our journey towards death.: We all want to “be” and “fear the idea of non-being.”

Popular spiritual author, Madeleine L’ Engle in her book, Walking on Water, shared this true story of a friend during World War II.

“During the Second World War one of my friends was an English woman who was married to an RAF officer. Daily she walked with vulnerability, not knowing whether or not his plane would be shot down. One day he was allowed an unexpected leave before a dangerous mission and came home to London for a brief visit with his wife and three small children. Joyfully, she left him at home, took all their food coupons, and went shopping to prepare as festive a meal as could be procured in wartime London. While she was gone there was an unexpected daytime raid, and her house was hit. Her husband, her three children, were killed.

During the rest of the war she worked hard, was helpful to many other people, did her passionate grieving in private. Ultimately she met a man who fell in love with her and asked her to marry him. It was, she said, the most difficult decision she had ever had to make in her life. If she did not marry again, if she had no more children, she was safe, she could not be hurt again as she had been hurt. If she remarried, if she had more babies, she was opening herself to total vulnerability.

It is easier to be safe than to be vulnerable.

But she made the dangerous decision. She dared to love again She dared to live again…with all its vulnerabilities..

…………………….

 We will all arrive at a crossroads one day where we can either lay down and roll over, self-absorbed in our own personal tragedies, or pick ourselves up and get back in the game.

Two examples:

John Milton, Paradise Lost, could have retreated into passive blindness and self-pity instead of trying the patience of his three dutiful daughters and any visiting friend by insisting that they write down what he dictated. Beethoven could have remained in the gloom of silence instead of forging the glorious sounds which he could never hear except in his artist’s imagination.

So until tomorrow…Sometimes the very impetus  of overcoming obstacles results in a surge of creativity. It is in our responses that we are given the gift of helping God write our story.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

“Land of the Free Because of the Brave…and Vulnerable!”

Let us always remember, on this important remembrance day, that Memorial Day for families who have lost loved ones fighting for our beautiful gift of freedom, doesn’t arrive just once a year, instead every day for them is Memorial Day..

*Before I drop some snapshots into the memory box….we all had a nice surprise by the selection of our own Kaitlyn Swicegood in the current (June) Skirt Magazine as one of  Seven Females That Have Earned Their Very Own Place in the Sun. (Her picture was taken upside down for her yoga background and experiences.)

 Memories of Memorial Day 2016

Dear Reader:

I had some kind of epiphany yesterday watching Rutledge and Lachlan stand by their Japanese Maples. I decided each year at the same time I am going to take a photo of each child by their tree and observe the difference in both their sizes and their tree sizes.

They will both “continue” to grow and their own story will continue to have a new beginning, middle, and ending each year.

Lately many of the popular television series have had their grand finale episode for the season. And many have closed as cliff-hangers leaving us to our own devices to come up with an ending.

For most of the shows…it is only a temporary ending…the show will resume in the fall with a new beginning, middle, and ending.

Rutledge has been given the job “Fountain Water Boy.” He is so excited that he will get to fill up the milk carton jugs and pour in the fountain on a “continuous” basis. This must be done every day unless (like we are experiencing now) it rains. Then Mother Nature takes over the job.

Don’t we all get discouraged when it seems like we wait and wait for prayers to be answered concerning prayers for loved ones….is God even listening we question in the wee hours of early morning.

But think about this…my epiphany. What if  the answer we get back from God is “To be continued.” In other words we are still in the middle of the story…not the end…so God has not interacted yet…only He knows the ending and the outcome.

I found this wonderful article titled: “When you’re waiting for God to show up.”  (Relevant Magazine) This quote particularly hit home with me:

“We’re only in the middle of the story—and God isn’t just going to show up and make things right in the end, we’ll realize He’s been there through it all.

Using the Lazarus Story as the point maker…..think about this familiar story again. (Relevant Magazine-“When You’re Waiting for God to Show Up.”)

…This ‘middle of the story’ idea makes me think of Mary and Lazarus. Many of us are familiar with the story—Mary and her sister Martha have a brother named Lazarus whom Jesus raises from the dead. But have you thought about what Mary and her sister go through from the time Lazarus gets sick to the time Jesus resurrects him?

Mary and Martha know Jesus loves them and their brother Lazarus. They know He’d be there in time of need. So when Lazarus gets deathly ill, Mary tells one of His disciples to relay the message. She and her family then wait in expectancy for his arrival.

They wait. And they wait. Three long, drawn out, painfully quiet days, as Lazarus just gets sicker.

And then, no longer able to hold on, Lazarus breathes his last breath.

What were Mary and Martha thinking at this time? If they were like most of us, I would imagine it was something like, “I thought Jesus loved us. I thought we were special to Him. Why didn’t He come?” Perhaps they felt angry, and a sense of abandonment or betrayal.

When Jesus does show up, Mary tells him, “If you had been here earlier, Lazarus would have lived.” Everyone is grieving what they see to be a tragic end to the story. Even Jesus weeps when He sees their pain and loss.

But what if Mary, Martha and their friends knew that this was not the end of the story? What if they knew there was good to still come?

Out of seemingly nowhere, in a sudden turn of events, Jesus acts. He stands up, walks over to Lazarus and calls him back from the dead.

Dear Reader:

I almost dropped my watering can yesterday morning when suddenly something startled my peripheral vision. Could it be? It was! A butterfly! After all these weeks whining and complaining about the absence of butterflies in the garden since (early spring -particularly after planting  their favorite “foods”) here came the butterfly!

It’s bright stripes of orange and black and white polka-dots  against the flower’s lavender took my breath away. Welcome home again butterflies. Where have you been? I have missed you.!

(Maybe they were in school taking reading lessons and could now read the welcome sign)

*This invitation extends to dragonflies and humming birds too!

For the first time, in a long time, the grass looks parched. The beautiful early spring shade of luscious green is gone…replaced by white and faded green colors blended into the grass. As much as I don’t want Memorial Day weekend ruined for cook-outs and outside events…I sure wouldn’t mind some rain during the nights….my watering bill is going to be extravagant if  we don’t get a good soaking soon.

Besides providing the physical need of water…one virtue that a garden demands is patience on the part of the gardener! I have had to learn this lesson the hard way…such as not to pull up a plant that is struggling or half-dead or sigh in exasperation when flowering vines refuse to climb. I must remember that life revolves around “God Time” not human  “wish list” time.

“All in good time” my mother would remind me as a child. My patience has grown (humbled by my own children)  over the years but I still like things done right now. I imagine it is a battle I will still be waging when my number is called up.

The first words out of God’s mouth will probably be: “Relax Becky, everything here will happen  “all in good time.”  (Always suspected mother was a special guardian angel from God for me.)

My greatest joy these days is watching the four Japanese maples (Eva Cate, Rutledge, Jake, and Lachlan) grow. It is one of my most favorite ways to tell time now. It is like I have four tree “clocks” surrounding my garden….providing more shade every season. *Photo taken looking out the kitchen window on the B&B side.

Like my Mary Engelbreith’s 2016 calendar cover says: Enjoy the Joy!

So until tomorrow: 

“Adopt the pace of nature: Her secret is PATIENCE.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

*I do believe God put a garden in my life to teach me this lesson! Thanks God!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Delights of the Day from the Garden:

Harriett told me a most interesting tidbit of genealogy behind the two big yellow lilies that graced yesterday’s blog….their origin….how they got their names. (Those blooms were so big…a hibiscus bloom would pale beside them.)

Glad you got the yellow one. It’s name is “Look here Mary.” The creator of the one was as amazed as you were when it bloomed for the first time and excitedly called his wife to come see the beauty they had. At least this is the story my Dad told about it. They were members of the Day Lily club and crossed and created several blossoms but none this pretty. Enjoy.

Dear Reader:

Even though Grandmother Wilson reminded me, on several occasions, to stop and enjoy a “slice of life” the expression originally referred to a short film, documentary, or play with  “slice of life” dialogue throughout…”unembellished representation of real life.” 

Simplified, the expression aptly points out that at some benchmark moment in our lives we come to the realization that the every day ordinariness of life is the life we come to cherish…where the true treasure of simply being alive thrives.

For example…when I went out in the garden yesterday two of Harriett’s day lilies had bloomed simultaneously and were breath-taking in size and beauty.

They reminded me of the double mint gum advertisement with the famous Double Mint gum twins. The slogan went: “Double your pleasure, double your fun….Double good, Double good, Double good gum!”

Except this time it was the double darling lilies that took front stage in the garden…just an ordinary day with a “double good” surprise!

*A little trivia….Doublemint gum emerged in 1914  (following Wrigley’s  juicy fruit and spearmint gums.) The reason for the “double” was in the processing: “The unique double distillation process for the mint in Doublemint was the source of the brand’s name.”

Yesterday as I walked by the fountain the sun was shining through the trees at just the right angle casting light shimmers across the top of the water…. at the bottom was all those new pennies (many of you threw in for your wish) were shining like gold. I think, gals, it is a good sign that all your wishes will come true….double true!

Here is a sampling of the sights in an ordinary life that make us so happy….a cactus (one I gave Susan, a long time ago,  that she broke off and replanted for her mother and look at it now…I sure gave it to the right person) blueberries at Anne’s that we picked and ate right off the bush yesterday, and just peeks of life in every floral form that makes you happy.

So until tomorrow: 

“Once in awhile, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.”

I am living that fairy tale every “ordinary” day! My penny wish, Monday night,  was to just keep living the life I am living right now…it far surpasses anything I could have dreamed of….

*And grandmother….life has sliced me the biggest slice of cake recently…I am “eating my cake and having it too“….living life to the fullest!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I reckon I just have to recognize the fact that suddenly I am old. It is making me a little sad, like my drooping confederate rose (above) but also mad!

Yesterday I told stories to seven different time slots of students in a trailer at Oakbrook Elementary…once I only had one class in there but most of the time there were two classes and on one occasion four classes of third, fourth, fifth, and (yes one) first grade class. (I loved every minute of it!)

Not only was I storytelling but also dancing the twist, the jerk, the swim, and the charleston for the final finale to “Devil with the Blue Dress On.” (Seven times, remember)

When the classes all twisted and went down to see “how low can you go” I went way down….I hung in there with the best of the students. Seven times!

So I was in a very happy/satisfied place when I left to go home….I was thinking to myself…“I’ve still got it girl…I can still hang with the students.”

The closer I got to home the hungrier I got…I was in the mood for some seafood…fried shrimp. (Had another appointment so wanted to go through a fast lane in a hurry) I ended up in the car line going around Captain D’s. When I gave my order I asked for the fried shrimp plate…but then reminded the voice on the other end that I didn’t want the bigger butterfly shrimp but the small ones.

The voice from inside replied back to me….“Do you mean sweetheart, the “popcorn” shrimp? “Exactly right,” I replied happily, “the name just popped right out of my mind for a moment.” (a little twist on words…witty I thought)

“There was no laughter, however, instead there was a shushing sound and then the voice replied, “Don’t worry “sugah” it happens to everyone sooner or later.”  There was something in that response that made me feel a little strange but I reassured myself I was over-reacting because I was tired and starving.

As I got to the window I saw the 40-something face that accompanied the voice. Now she said,  “Oh good! There you are sweetheart.” (I thought to myself…where do you think I was… getting lost going around the building?) Again…I reassured myself I was just overreacting.

I handed her the money but was still a little wary about the ever- so-subtle condescending attitude I was feeling. And then came the coup de’ gras. As she went to return my change…some dollars and coins ….she, literally, “cupped” my hand together and placed hers over it, while she slowly dropped the bills and coins in it…..like she wasn’t sure I was strong enough to hold onto it by myself….I swear she held on to my cupped hand until I had almost pulled my hand back in the car window…I thought she was going to fall out the vendor window.

I could feel my face turning beet red….I wanted to shout, “How old and fragile do you think I am? I just finished seven classes of storytelling plus dancing the jerk, swim, twist, and charleston….and you think I can’t hold some money alone? “

Challenge: (What I really wanted to say was): “Why don’t you go and do what I just did and I will help other customers cup their hands so they won’t spill their change ….how about that sweetheart!!!!!” (But of course I didn’t)

To be fair…I can “Sugah, Sweetheart, Sweetie, and Bless your heart” with the best of them….BUT I do it for everyone regardless of age…I say it to  the grandchildren, children, peers…..actually any and everyone I come into contact with….but believe me this “sugah and sweetheart” was age bias!!!!  You can feel it, down to your bones, when it crosses the line from a fun remark to a supercilious attitude.

I know I am being just a ‘tad’ vindictive….but I hope the next time this woman goes into a department store and wanders too far over in the “Junior” section some clerk comes up to her and says, “Are you lost sugah…I think the clothes over here will be more age appropriate for your style now… sweetheart.”  (I can only hope)

Okay I have vented enough today….I am over it….thanks for listening…please feel free to share any similar experiences….”Misery loves company.” The incident just took the giddy-up out of my step.

Before I finish the blog I want to print Dianne’s and Sue Anne’s response to the messages of flowers blog yesterday that came in after the blog went to press yesterday morning.

Curiosier and Curiosier…Sue Anne and I could not make a technology connection…. first of all our phones don’t like each other and won’t accept each others’ calls. Then the responses on my Iphone (letting me know someone had contacted me on FB ) never appeared when I pulled FB. In exasperation I gave up.

While I was at Oakbrook (yesterday) poor Sue Anne actually got in the car and drove over with a piece of paper where she had written up the significance of the blue hydrangea arrangement she brought me and left it taped on my door.(Lesson learned…in the end, physical communication is the best of all….unless, of course, the other person isn’t home.)

Most annoying experience for both of us….so, now, let me share these two family connections and their family’s love of flowers….here are some excerpts. (I was in the “ballpark” with Sue Anne’s story, but had left out some of the best parts. She is such a wonderful storyteller and writer I would rather her tell this touching story.)

***I just recognized the funniest God Wink in Sue Anne’s first line….God does have a sense of humor. (Et tu, God…I really am old.)  Tears are pouring down my face I am laughing so hard.

Sue Anne: “Daddy was never in the hospital, “sweetheart.” We kept him at home and when he had to go to bed his nurses and therapists would come to the house to see him.

Mama planted a huge flower garden outside of his bedroom window so he could enjoy the flowers. His therapist brought him a blue hydrangea bush, followed by other nurses and friends doing the same.

When he died from (ALS) mama continued to care for the flowers as if they were her babies. Following her death, before I sold her house, Caleb (her son) moved the hydrangeas to my yard- they are planted in front of my porch so I can see them everyday. I call them “Daddy’s flowers of faith” because he had such an incredible and beautiful faith- just like his flowers. Anyway my dear, that is the flower story.”

See the difference in this beautiful story….that is why I was trying so hard to make contact with Sue Anne so she could re-tell the story for me, as only she can tell it.

Sue Anne is the female counterpart to Andy Griffith. To those of you who had to leave before the end Monday evening you missed laughing your head off with the comedy team of Gin-g and Sue Anne!

*Plus with so much going on, I would catch a snatch of this story and a snatch of that story and I was afraid I was mixing them up. Thank you Sue Anne…I will never look at blue hydrangeas again…without remembering them as “flowers of faith.” Love that expression and I love you, sugah! (I couldn’t resist) Just “funning!”

Dianne: Excerpt: I asked Dianne how she got interested in getting her Master Gardener certificate and she said her mother was the one who encouraged her to sign up for the course through the Clemson Extension. It would be a great way to meet new people (since she was moving to Summerville.) Dianne said it really was a fun way to learn more about flowers with similarly interested people. Today she volunteers at Magnolia Gardens and works with specific seasonal flowers. Her real love and interest is arranging and she does it so beautifully!

Dear Reader:

Two summers ago when Anne and I went to Ireland we spent a lot of time at the Burren. One of the strangest places you will ever see. At first glance it looks like God just cleared out a huge plot of earth (and like a  little boy at play)….began happily throwing stones, rocks and boulders of every size down on it…covering every square yard of this “waste land.”

Only it is not a “waste land”….it is eerily one of the most beautiful places in the world.

From a video on the Burren (we watched at The Perfumery close by) we discovered the origin of this unique piece of geography/real estate.

*The most important lesson learned from the video, however, was how life would not be forced out of this difficult terrain.

It crept in, in the form of hundreds of varieties of flowers, peeking their heads out in crevices through the rocks.

Flowers really are the messengers of the past.and Monday night this was evidenced over and over again by some of the ‘garden celebration guests’ who came bringing floral designs of every kind.

As different friends would surprise me with their flower, plant, or arrangement some would tell me the reason why they brought that particular flower. After several of these incidences I began to see a pattern playing out which I found quite interesting.

Several of the gifts had a personal connection to family members, some of whom are now gone, whose love of a certain flower or plant was passed down and now lives on in their memory.

Harriett Edwards: “The succulents came from Ed’s grandmother. She was a wonderful gardener. The day of her funeral, at age 97, every one of the lilies and irises on her casket came from her own yard. We used the “Hen and Biddies”  on the tables at Frankie’s wedding reception two years ago.  You were her History teacher in the eighth grade a few years ago.” 

(*Frankie was one of the sweetest students I ever taught…she recently married and has a precious little boy….so deserving of this happiness.)

Look how beautifully these succulents can be used in floral arrangements in a cement basket container and pot: Harriett sent these two photos she arranged and sit in her yard…such talent!.

Jo Dufford and Colby:    I know every time I look at these beautiful “knock out” roses (that they gave me) I will always remember the amazing relationship between this grandmother and grand-daughter .

It is a “knock out” connection in love.  I only hope I will be able to come close to the special relationship these two “women” share by blood and love with my grandchildren.

JO wrote:

Gin-g:  Gin-g told me “Becky…there is no connection to blue hydrangeas but my Mother told me one time I was like my grandmother Huggins who fixed flowers for Gardner Webb…Boiling Springs High School back then…flowers are just God’s way of showing His love to us…”

And that is what Gin-g does constantly….show her love with fresh flowers almost every time she stops by to visit….she knows how I love fresh flowers and blue hydrangeas bring back a special day for my daughter Mandy and me….her wedding day.

Sue Anne: Sue Anne, too, chose a blue hydrangea arrangement and her love of these flowers stems directly from her father’s love of them. Near the end of his days, while he was in the hospital, Sue Anne’s mother would pick some and bring to his bedside table in his room at the hospital to cheer him up. These flowers had always been his favorite!

That particular year….the bushes produced more hydrangeas than ever before or since. The hospital staff, who adored him, always commented on his fresh hydrangeas and how beautiful they were which made him smile. After his death they sent blue hydrangeas to the funeral.

Later when Sue Anne’s mother died and her house sold, she got her son to go with her and pull up the hydrangea bushes so she would always have Dad’s favorite flower in her yard.

Dianne: Dianne and Gina are in my Sunday class but I didn’t know that Dianne is a “Master Gardener” and helps with arrangement at Magnolia Gardens. I have heard that professional flower arrangers think about the recipient’s personality before making an arrangement.

I think this must be true because as I studied every flower in the arrangement….I found myself smiling in delight….bright oranges yellow, reds, and pinks….bright colors of life….a love of life. Perfect! Thanks girls!

Anne: Anne arrived first carrying a tray of what she thinks is moon flower seedlings but it is so hard to tell this early…might be morning glories so she threw in a pack of moon flower seeds just in case. I can’t ever tell the leaves apart, early on, either.

Her love of flowering vines stems from her father she thinks. He was a doctor but loved working with plants in his spare time and his passion was flowering vines, especially passion plant vines. She has extended his interest and passion to other types of flowering vines.

When Anne got back from Charleston last night she sent this: “Dad mostly cultivated orchids but had this beautiful passion vine he was very proud of that grew up toward the top of the greenhouse attached to our house. He would cut off the blossoms as they came, and one of us would get to take it to our teacher.

  Dad made gardening seem effortless, although I know differently!  He would tell us he just “chucked” this or that in the ground and it would grow. He spent lots of time watering – I think that was when he got his quiet time, puttering in the greenhouse or out in the yard.” 

…………………….

Isn’t it amazing how our loved ones, who came before us, leave such a large  footprint behind which we fill with continuing shared love and passion?

So until tomorrow….Flowers are the best keepsakes because we can’t keep them…only love them while they’re here…just like our family and close friends.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Even though this Easter lily (which just bloomed two days ago) has definitely delivered its message a little late…it is still the same message every day of the year “Christ the Lord is risen today.” Hallelujah! 

And speaking of “Hallelujah” Libby’s medical tests came back  fine….no further treatment. Thanks for all the prayers!

 Brooke’s grandson Caleb is off to work with daddy…it’s a man thing you know.