Birthday gifts

My birthday is on Friday. I have a love-hate relationship with birthdays. It gets worse as I get older, but ironically that has nothing to do with age.

My maternal grandparents were the best with birthdays. Since I lost my grandmother almost two years ago, my birthdays have gotten a lot harder.

The last birthday I had with my grandmother she gave me a sizeable check as a gift. At that point, J.D. and I were still living in the house we had built. When we built that house, the front yard was entirely landscaped and the backyard left a lot to be desired. We had a scalloped wood fence installed about 18 months previously and the builder had sprayed hydro seed on the back, but that was it. I decided to use my birthday money from my grandmother to have a professional come up with a landscape design and then J.D. and I would implement it. My grandmother loved to garden and this absolutely delighted her! She was thrilled with my use of her gift.

The woman who drew the design had some great ideas. I told her that I loved daylilies because of how low maintenance they are.  I also told her that I had been looking at gardening books and that I really wanted to have lamb’s ears in beds. She incorporated my wishes into the design and J.D. and I got to work on the weekend of Memorial Day.

We bought all of the plants but we could not find the lamb’s ears. We looked and looked and checked out the big box stores and the local nurseries. They would tell us that they had just gotten some in and that they were sold out. We decided that we would keep checking back.

Suddenly my grandmother was gravely ill. She slipped into a coma and passed away. The backyard was put on hold. Plans were made to sell our house and move into my grandmother’s house. The yard was forgotten.

About this time last spring with the first anniversary of my grandmother’s death and my birthday approaching, my grandmother’s flowers that she had planted over the years around her house, now my house, began blooming. Except something that had never bloomed before was also blooming; LAMB’S EARS! Last year there were two plants. Two little plants that bloomed gorgeous magenta flowers with the silkiest green leaves.
And this year? I have over twenty-five of them in this one flower bed!

Dear Gamma,

I love you and I miss you so much. Thank you for the birthday present. I promise to take care of it. Give Grandaddy a big hug and a kiss for me. I think of you guys everyday and I hope I make you both proud.

Your granddaughter,

Lindy