Yesterday morning, I picked fresh blue hydrangea, white Rose of Sharon, and red roses out of our yard, and made floral arrangements for my Dad and Grandpa Freeman's graves, and delivered them.
Today is my Grandpa's birthday! This afternoon, I took two wisteria blooms to his grave at Floral Garden Cemetery. The plants they bloomed from were from vines at his Howell's Point Property in coastal NC. I knew that they were the perfect thing to take, that he would have loved that they were from his place. One of the things that my Grandpa would say is: Live within your means. The thing that I remember about him is his low, warm, rich chuckle of a laughter. It is kind of understated, but it is a rich warm laughter of a life well-lived. My Grandpa made clay pipes to sell at 9 years old. During the Roaring Twenties he made bath tub gin. He was a Doughboy in WW1 (the Great War), and he painted in the shipyards in Newport News VA in WW11, until painters' colic sent him home. He was an amazing gardener. He loved to see things grow. He always had fresh young yellow squash that he gave a youngest granddaughter. He alway...
Yesterday (April 3, 2026) was the 16th anniversary of my Dad's (Delmer Thomas Green) death due to cancer. In one way, it seems like a lifetime ago; in another, it seems like yesterday. Time passes. My Dad told me not to mourn indefinitely when he was no longer here with me, and to remember that he had lived a good life, had good times, and to go on with living my own life. Later today, I am planning to take a spring silk flower arrangement for the vase on his grave marker at Holly Hill Cemetery, as well as a live potted Easter lily, and his amethyst rosary. The rosary was purchased in Little Havana for him decades ago by a family friend who was visiting some of her relatives there. According to his own words, my Dad's favorite holiday was Easter. Spring was also his favorite season. He told me more than once that I was lucky that my birthday was in spring. He said that it was the best time of the year to have one. Then he would say, "It always snows on my birthda...
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