Thursday, July 28, 2005

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

 

Meet Jerdine.  I took her picture in the rose garden for that is where I see her most.
   Jerdine had to leave her home and garden and come live in an assisted living facility because of a nasty old stroke.  Here she found there was nothing for her to do. She bought lots of house plants and they fill her room. Then she discovered the roses.
   The roses in our garden had bloomed and faded, and they would require attention before a second bloom could come.  The dead blossoms needed to be plucked so the new buds could flourish and flower. Here was something Jerdine knew exactly how to do. She set to with a will.
   “Hey,” she was told, “get out of the garden. Don’t pick the flowers.”
   Jerdine explained the best that she could, words not coming easily after her stroke, that old dead blooms had to come off before the new little buds could blossom. And despite folks grumbling, she kept preparing the roses for new blooms.
   “Look,” she told me. “They be comin’ back. See here, and here. You come back on Wednesday.  Be all beautiful.”
   And I went back on Wednesday and took my daughter to meet Jerdine because I appreciated her enthusiasm.
   “Not ready yet,” she told me, but pointed our several new buds on the stems where she had pulled off dead blooms.
   “Be ready on Saturday, sure,” she assured me.
   But that afternoon, the institutional gardeners, working on a schedule of their own, using electric loppers, CUT THEM ALL BACK TO THREE FOOT STUMPS.  Every one. Baby buds and all. 


   I haven’t seen Jerdine since. She must have discovered the mayhem by now.
  The second blooming of the roses has been postponed. Until next year.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know if I'm just emotional right now or what but I found this so upsetting and sad.  Maybe it's because I love roses and spent a good deal of time tending to my mother's rose bush (a chore she was more than willing to pass on to me!) and I know roses need constant maintenance.  Instead of grumbling about it, the grumblers could have taken the time to simply ask someone who gardens regularly, and they would have told them that Jerdine was absolutely correct.  Have they never heard of someone pruning roses?  Someone should tell the "gardeners" that chopping down a plant is not pruning.  Sure a lot of people trim it down like that....in late summer, early fall. Completely unnecessary.  

Anonymous said...

that is just soooo sad!
My heart breaks for Jerdine! That would have been a wonderful way to facilitate her rehab from her stroke but noooooo!
Give that sweet lady a hug from me.
Laura

Anonymous said...

OH DEAR!  I have a feeling Jerdine will not be happy....  I'm sorry Jerdine... Everyone needs something to make them smile....   Perhaps she needs a pen pal to take her mind off this....  I have one that always makes me feel very wonderful when I get mail....  Jackie

Anonymous said...

:-(  Poor Jerdine....  my heart is so sad for her right now...  a newfound joy - after a traumatic incident,  just taken away in an instant...

I'm going back and forth between sad and mad at the idiot 'gardeners'...

~Amy

Anonymous said...

Between the devastation to the roses and the pogrom, sounds like things are pretty violent at the home. Thanks for the lesson on how institutions conspire to make people of a certain age feel irrelevant.  Mrs. L

Anonymous said...

I am so very touched.
Also speachless~
Wishing you health, happiness and laughter.
TJ~
http://journals.aol.com/vaultofsecrets/MoonDancer/

Anonymous said...

Aargh!  This makes me very angry! - Karen

Anonymous said...

I almost cried.  Give Jerdine a hug for me.  Tell her we all commiserate.
~~Silk

Anonymous said...

DITTO AMY!   BUT...I'm sure the gardeners didn't see Jerdine doing her work!
It would have taken MANAGEMENT to intervene!
K

Anonymous said...

THE COMMENT THAT KATHE2OCOLORANT LEFT NOT CORRECT. THEY JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND ABOUT LIVING ASSITANT HOMES LIKE I DO FROM WORKING IN ONE BELIEVE ME UNTIL YOU'VE LIVED IN ONE OR WORKED IN ONE YOU WILL NEVER KNOW

Anonymous said...

Oh, how very very sad.  I am almost overcome with grief.

Krissy
http://journals.aol.com/fisherkristina/SometimesIThink

Anonymous said...

oh pooe jerdine..all that hard work...send her my love
Donna In TEXAs
http://journals.col.com/Lacaza3/sweepingthecobwebsofmymind/

Anonymous said...

This is so sad. It makes me so mad to hear about people treated like this. I'm sure her roses were going to be beautiful. ~ Lori

Anonymous said...

This makes me so angry.