Just barely taller than me at 5’1″
She’d straight up yell at you in front of the whole neighborhood if you weren’t acting right.
Other days she would just laugh so loud and sing songs
She loved being outside gardening or walking around the neighborhood, Salvation Army, Home Depot, Mr. Chris’s burger spot, and bus stops.
She would buy flowers and succulents
Plant them all around the house
Onto the green belt
And then watch General Hospital while knitting.
She’d make the whole neighborhood fresh cut fries
And fried dumplings.
Then yell at me out of her bedroom window, topless, and without shame to come in the house.
I wouldn’t though, I’d keep playing until she’d come out of the house topless to drag me into he house herself.
When she moved away, I was so heartbroken, I slept with my parents on their bedroom floor for some time.
I would lay at night crying because I wanted her to be home,
Yet I didn’t visit her as much as I wish I could/should/would.
I’ve been gardening and making little succulent pots and terraniums
Thinking about how she would grow beautiful things.
Her last few years, she wasn’t strong enough to go to church everyday, but she would walk down stairs from her apartments with her cane and go to the Home Depot dumpster to rescue any succulent they threw out, bring it home, care for it, revive it and have a balcony with wall to wall pots of every color and kind of juicy succulents.
And I feel it too.
Watching things grow and change right before your eyes is amazing.
It makes you feel alive
And you can really appreciate the simple part of basically just living when you’re growing and taking care of something.
I suck with dates but I’m pretty sure it’s been 5 years since I saw her physical body, but she sure does take some mind to visit me in my dreams occasionally and tell some of her wisdom to me.