Where flowers bloom so does hope
An old house in our neighborhood had the most lovely perennial garden. In fact, it had been included in my hometown’s garden tour at one time. Often when I walked by, I complimented the elderly woman who tended the flowers on a daily basis in the summer. She lived with a couple whom I assumed were her family. She didn’t speak English, but smiled and nodded at me as if she knew what I said. I once tried greeting her in Polish, but she simply shook her head.
Then I didn’t see her anymore. A For Sale sign appeared, and eventually the house changed hands. As I watched her once-tended garden slipping into weeds, I had to resist the impulse to save every fragile bloom. I imagined the new owners leveling the beds without a second thought. What could I do—stage a midnight rescue with a shovel? The idea was absurd, yet the possibility of losing that small patch of beauty stayed with me.
Just in time
Shortly after I snapped the photo below, I noticed a truck parked in front. A woman dressed in overalls and boots was digging up plants and shrubs and placing them into buckets.
When I asked what was going on, she told me she had permission to take what she wanted from the owners. I couldn’t help but ask if she was taking everything, since there was so much! She told me to “please,” grab a shovel and take what I could because the house would soon be razed.
Fortunately, my granddaughter was with me, so we hurried home, changed into jeans, grabbed bags and shovels and raced back down the block.
These are just a few of the perennials I managed to grab:
That’s where we find hope, and a feeling of home
When I see the flowers blooming this year, I think of the lovely gardener with a tender heart.
When I moved my late mother from Ohio to assisted living near me in Michigan, I transplanted some of her delphinium and myrtle. I’m so grateful I did. Now that she’s passed, I love seeing the blue flowers in the fall. Like the elderly woman in my neighborhood, my mother loved her garden. I like to think she speaks to me through the flowers, telling me that if there is still beauty in the world, and if we take the time to nurture it, we’ll be all right.
Thank you for visiting. Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a wrangler of words and big messy feelings in fiction and poetry.
Her second novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, is coming October 27, 2026, from Regal House Publishing: When love letters from a despondent stranger land in her lap, an anxious overthinker becomes convinced she’s the cure, and sets off to save him, and herself, blissfully armed with nothing but magical thinking.
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