The Gardenby Irene
Spring had finally arrived in Portland Oregon in 1993. Spring in Oregon is an affair of riotous color with blossoming fruit trees, azaleas, rhododendrons, and flowering bulbs. Colors such as pink, red, white, yellow, fuchsia, magenta, and lavender provide a feast for the eyes.
Spring was also the time my father, Emmitt Porter always started laying out his garden. My father had two great pastimes--his garden and his fishing. Gardening was his second favorite pastime--fishing was his first love. Daddy’s garden was no small affair but instead took up the entire back half of the lot next door to the house. He and Mom had bought the lot at the same time they bought the house so that no one could squeeze a house next to them. The front half was already landscaped with a woodland scene complete with gazebo, goldfish pond and spraying fountain but the back half was all Daddy’s. He had planted his garden almost every year that he had lived in the house.
Approximately two years previously Daddy had suffered a mild stroke but he did not let that slow him down. However, during the past year he had been told that his kidneys were failing and that he had prostate cancer. He had missed the past summer’s fishing season because he was no longer strong enough for the fifty mile trip to the coast and the day’s fishing. He had even sold the boat that he loved.
But his garden was another matter. Mom tried that spring of 1993 to persuade him to forget about planting a garden for that year. Somehow, he found a friend who came and rotor-tilled the beds and prepared the ground for him. He then proceeded to plant enough tomatoes, squash, green beans and other vegetables to feed half the neighborhood.
That was the last garden that my Daddy planted. In November of that year, while I was visiting my brother, Tom at his home in Arizona, we received a call to tell us that Daddy was in the final stages of his illness and had only a few days left. He had refused to be treated with dialysis at the time he was first diagnosed. He said he was in eighties and felt that his time was coming and he didn’t want his life prolonged artificially. When the minister from his church visited him in the hospital, my father recited to him one of favorite bible passages.
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith: Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
Daddy requested and received permission to go home for his final days. Although he could not respond verbally, he was aware of each one who came to say goodbye. He held on to life until all of his children and his nephews arrived from all across the United States and Canada and went in to say goodbye. Each of us asked him to wait for another one who was on the way. Less than an hour after the last one said goodbye, Daddy let go and left us.
An amazing story of an amazing man; Irene's father. Did you feel like you knew him in an intimate way? Or like you would have loved to have spent some time with him? This is an excellent example of describing the life of a significant person in your life.
Irene wrote this first: February 14, 2003
Revised June 30, 2008
Copyright © 2008 by The Write Workshop. All rights reserved.
Approximately two years previously Daddy had suffered a mild stroke but he did not let that slow him down. However, during the past year he had been told that his kidneys were failing and that he had prostate cancer. He had missed the past summer’s fishing season because he was no longer strong enough for the fifty mile trip to the coast and the day’s fishing. He had even sold the boat that he loved.
But his garden was another matter. Mom tried that spring of 1993 to persuade him to forget about planting a garden for that year. Somehow, he found a friend who came and rotor-tilled the beds and prepared the ground for him. He then proceeded to plant enough tomatoes, squash, green beans and other vegetables to feed half the neighborhood.
That was the last garden that my Daddy planted. In November of that year, while I was visiting my brother, Tom at his home in Arizona, we received a call to tell us that Daddy was in the final stages of his illness and had only a few days left. He had refused to be treated with dialysis at the time he was first diagnosed. He said he was in eighties and felt that his time was coming and he didn’t want his life prolonged artificially. When the minister from his church visited him in the hospital, my father recited to him one of favorite bible passages.
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith: Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
Daddy requested and received permission to go home for his final days. Although he could not respond verbally, he was aware of each one who came to say goodbye. He held on to life until all of his children and his nephews arrived from all across the United States and Canada and went in to say goodbye. Each of us asked him to wait for another one who was on the way. Less than an hour after the last one said goodbye, Daddy let go and left us.
An amazing story of an amazing man; Irene's father. Did you feel like you knew him in an intimate way? Or like you would have loved to have spent some time with him? This is an excellent example of describing the life of a significant person in your life.
Irene wrote this first: February 14, 2003
Revised June 30, 2008
Copyright © 2008 by The Write Workshop. All rights reserved.
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