Yesterday, Joey, our lawn
guy, dug a hole and planted the gardenia bush the family sent to honor
Paul’s memory. There are some blooms on it already and, combined with the jasmine
growing nearby, it distributes a heavenly scent along one end of the lanai.
Later on, I puttered in the
garden, attempting with all my mind and all my senses to pull memories of Paul
close to me. Somehow, although I knew there was beauty and color all around me,
everything seemed pale and incomplete without Paul to share it. It reminded me
of an unfinished watercolor painting that the artist has set on a shelf and
never returned to finish. One has to strain to visualize how the finished
painting would have looked.
Paul used to love to watch me
deadheading, pruning, and weeding among the flowers and shrubs. “You belong in
a garden,” he would say. I would agree. I began gardening, after a fashion, when I was
two years old. That is when my daddy marked off a small plot just for me in the
flower garden that bordered our front lawn. Daddy used to love to tell the story
of how I would discover snails on the undersides of the leaves and quickly pop
them in my mouth before he could stop me. Fortunately, I eventually learned not
to eat the snails and developed a love of gardening that has endured to this day.
I imagine one day I
will see my garden in full color again, as it was when Paul was around to
share the experience. For now, I reach out and pull the memories close, sensing his presence with me.
©2013 Laura Allen
Nonemaker All Rights Reserved
Very nice, Laura. I love the little bit of humor you share there, and I wonder if that means you are willing to eat escargot. Not me. Yuck! But I hope it brought a smile to your face as you were writing. I know it made me smile, and comparing the color to your world with Paul is also beautiful.
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