Girlfriends

I was commenting on the fact that both my hubby and I have aches and pains this morning. We worked hard in the yard yesterday, and now will pay for it. We continue the work, because it is just about the only physical work we do. This brought a memory to my mind of dear friends in my old neighborhood. their names were Ruth and Harold. They were the age that I am right now, when we became acquainted with them. We were back door neighbors and girl friends. Ruth started our friendship by bringing us an anniversary cake. I don't remember how she found out about it, but she knew everything in our neighborhood. As our friendship grew...we gardened together. She used to drop off plants at my back door all the time. Plants that she bought...plants that she came by in a mysterious way. On finding some jack in the pulpits and shooting stars at my door....I asked her where she found them. She said that she just "spirited " them away from the forest preserve near us. I didn't want to upset her, but felt she should know that they are there for everyone to enjoy...what if everyone did that....we would have nothing to see anymore. She listened, but I think it went in one ear and out the other. During a drought...she suggested dancing the rain dance in the nude. She was in her 80s at that time. My husband would look out the window over the sink and say, "Ruth's on her side in the garden." There she was on the ground nose to nose with her plants. When we got together later...we chuckled about this. She said it was the only way she could do it. She hurt too much to bend over or use a stool. She continued on that way... almost gardening on her back, hands deformed by arthritis, and out of breath sometimes...until the day she died. Her love of gardening never left her. I think it helped her live until well into her eighties. I miss her so much and think of her gardening antics often. In my mind I can see Ruth, followed by Harold, trudging through the backyard with a wheelbarrow...bringing me a treasure from the forest preserve or somewhere along the road.

Balisha