Our Mother’s Day gift was always an easy decision. We gave her an azalea. It was planted next to the garage, like every year prior. Now, you might be picturing a row of colorful azaleas running the length of the garage, but that was not the case.
Whether it was our soil, lack of attention, or the fact that we couldn’t Google for help, as the internet had not been invented. One thing was certain: the yearly azalea never survived.
Mother loved flowers, but was allergic, and the year we bought her an orchid to wear, she began sneezing before we left for church. My sister ended up wearing it, sitting on the opposite end of the pew. It didn’t help, since the decorative flower arrangements made her miserable.
It’s not that we didn’t have anything growing in our yard. A beautiful female holly tree flourished in the front yard, mulberry bushes bordered our driveway, and a fragrant lilac bush in our backyard eventually reached our second story. It is just a fact that nothing we planted survived.
That being said, what did survive were the precious memories of a dear mother who loved us with all her heart.
Retta Cooper, May 14, 1921-March 1, 1988
By Retta Lilliendahl, Local Writer
