Memories

Recently my mother in law Helen passed away. I had great admiration for her and always looked up to her and her thoughtful ways. She was a  big believer in family and lived her life loving those closest to her.  She always made her home  warm, open and  worth coming home to. During the special times like the holidays  she  seemed to do  things effortlessly, motivated always by love.  Some people would say she was the glue that held us all together. She loved to cook and bake, kept herself busy making quilts and blankets for the people she cared for. She was an avid gardener, I always felt we had that in common.  More then once she mentioned while fondly pointing to a blossom " there has to be a God to create something as beautiful as this." After she passed away  I went over to her small, lovingly cared for yard and dug up samplings to bring home to my own garden. Being the sentimentalist that I am I thought this would be a great way to have something still living as a remembrance of her.   There, in her garden I thought to myself this is  where she married and and raised three boys and a girl and then watched her grandchildren have children. Standing there fenced in,  I  found a contained world of beauty. Outside the chaotic world raged on but here in the garden things just made more sense to me . Good for the soul I see the columbine, pods full of willing seeds lingering amongst the peace rose .  Purple and pink phlox seem promising to me, red poppies with their paper red petals are sure to wave in the summer wind once again. Peonies and hyacinth are part of the cyclical nature of spring that titillate the senses after a long winters end. Here in the garden lies the Daffodils, candy tuff and Oriental lilies representing a beautiful lady and a life about gathering love.   Perhaps the most striking of all is the bleeding heart, is it the name or the the actual shape that draws me to her rosy pink hearts? Hanging like jewels on a necklace, conjuring  up lockets of sorrow and love lost. Full of romance and nostalgia the bleeding heart or "lady in the bathtub" takes me back to another time and place, deep within my psyche full of fantasies and fairy tales. 

I have my work cut out for me, an old neighbor helped me dig up various plants from Helen's yard. We worked and talked reminiscing about the years of toil, laughter and kids.   Together we gathered up what would be a small truck load. I hurried to get them in the ground, we were due for a early spring snow storm of 5-6"  Exhausted I got every plant back in the ground into the warm earth of their new home, relieved to have the work behind me and thankful for the help of a friendly neighbor.  Happy to know that the memories of sweet Helen still live on.