Granddaddy's Pride, Daddy's Apology, Granny's Giggle

Ahh, finally a good day to finish my garden. We've had some strange weather here in Texas this year. My husband and I got married in the month of May, twenty four years ago. It was a bright sunny and rather hot day, as it usually is in May.

Three years and two days later, we had a son in May. It was another bright hot day. So with our anniversary, birthday parties and other events that always go on in this month, I always pay attention to the weather. But this year we have had temperatures from in the fifties to the nineties, along with lots of thunderstorms. The kind with tornado warnings, hail, high winds, lots of lightning and loud crashes of thunder.

In the middle of all of this, I have been trying to plant some flowers. My husband removed some bushes along the front of our home, and I was so excited. Finally I could have my flower garden. We have a lot of flowers around our house. For some reason though, mostly in the back yard. Now I could plant some in the front. Yay!

Because of the unusual weather pattern this year, I guess there hasn't been the normal rush to the gardening stores. So this weekend there was a big sale at one of my favorite home improvement stores. I went out and bought as many as I could. This morning, I woke up early and found a sunny, yet very humid day. I was so ready. I had my new gardening gloves. My new lady-like little gardening tools, and because the grass was wet due to yesterday's storms, I put down a garbage bag and a big old housecoat over it so I could kneel on it.

As I started my digging in the rich moist soil, the vibrant earth, I was thinking of my Granddaddy. He always had a huge garden (in my mind). And he loved showing it off to us grandchildren. It was a special time with our grandfather. I loved his voice, his knowledge, his sense of humor. I thought of how proud he would be of me as I began my gardening. Even as I swatted at some kind of stinging or bitting bug, accidentally chopped a worm in half, wiped the sweat from my brow.

My back began to hurt, I twisted wrong on my bad knee that I had hurt a couple of years ago. When I felt my bottom lip quiver a little bit, my thoughts turned from the spirit of my grandfather to the spirit of my daddy. I was thinking, "Daddy, I am so embarrassed to be such a wimp. You would probably be ashamed of me." In books I always read how much people enjoy being one with the Earth. How they loved the feeling of the dirt running through their fingers. Well, lets just say that I was not exactly having that awe inspiring moment. Now I remembered why it had been so many years since the last time I had planted a garden. Until now, all I had remembered was the beautiful results. Plus I was a bit younger then.

Suddenly in the wind, it was if I heard a giggle. It reminded me of Granny. So now I felt the spirit of my Grandmother. And I realized that I had never seen Granny out in the garden. It was always Granddaddy's garden. Again it seemed I heard her giggle. And I knew I didn't really have anything to feel guilty about. Maybe I wasn't a natural gardener, maybe I was more like my grandmother. And suddenly that made everything alright. I loved my grandmother. She was really funny and awesome.

I looked around and saw that I had planted about seventeen or eighteen little flowers. All I had left was the larger plants. Just as I was going to go inside and get one of our sons, I heard my husband pull his truck into the driveway. I looked up into the heavens. Oh - thank the Lord. He loves spending time with stuff like this. It wasn't even five minutes later that he took over. It usually irritates me that he seems to think he can do everything better than me. Today I was so grateful that I really did almost cry.

I may be a Southern Lady, but I think I must be more suited to sipping mint juleps on the front porch. It's a good thing I love being a writer :)

Drive Safely - Yall.