Friday, May 18, 2007

Sweet Memory




I went out this morning to find my Rose Campions in full bloom. They have been straggling along for the past week or so, a flower here and there, but this morning they are everywhere. And I mean everywhere! They are a wild little thing, spreading themselves more and more each year.

My first plants were given to me by Lorene, my eighty-six year old Sunday School teacher. She passed away last year at the age of ninety-one. Her yard was covered in these flowers that seem to do well in shade or sun. She told me that her mother first planted the flowers when she, Lorene, was just a small child.

It took me a year or so to determine exactly what these flowers are. Her mother called them Tame Mullein. I finally found a picture and description in Rodale's Landscaping With Perennials. "Rose campion is an old-fashioned perennial with elongated oval leaves covered in silver gray felt. The deep rose red, five0-petaled flowers are carried in open clusters atop woolly stems. Plants grow from fibrous-rooted crowns." The book also states that they bloom in the late spring, but I have found they they bloom sporadically throughout the summer in my yard, especially those in shady areas.

Now that Miss Lorene is gone, seeing them bloom is all the more special to me. I miss her as well as her Sunday School lessons and the many stories that she always told us about this mountain area.

Her first job was teaching school. She would live in the small community during the week, then on Friday afternoon, her father would come on horseback to pick her up. He would let her ride the horse back home and he would walk.

She and her husband raised three daughters and farmed for over sixty years. Her husband passed away when he was ninety-five years old. At ninety, she still loved her flower gardens, tended her chickens, kept her home and taught Sunday School every week. I am thankful that she managed to live at home alone until a very few months before she passed away.

She was buried on her ninety-second birthday. While it was a sad day for all of us, we knew that she was having the best birthday ever!


RMary

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful flowers. What a wonderful way to remember your Sunday School teacher. It sounds as if she was an amazing woman! What a beautiful blessing for you to have known her.

    Pat
    Back Porch Musings

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  2. Rosemary, a sweet and beautiful memory of your lovely Sunday School Teacher and of her delightful gift - which shows how special a meaning - their beautiful bloom.

    Truly amazing photo's

    Blesings

    Peter

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  3. How exciting that the flowers still go on and on. And to know where they came from. How nice.
    Everything looks so pretty.
    If you want to take a picture with a mirror or take a picture OF a picture that has a glass frame you have to turn off the flash.
    Have to go out now and re pot a couple of plants, the squirrels are at it again.
    NANCY JO

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  4. What a beautiful post. The flowers are so beautiful. You are so sweet to remember her in your post.

    Take care,
    Love,
    Terri

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  5. Now that is a sweet memory and flower!!
    :)

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  6. How lovely the flowers are and your story is wonderful. Isn't it awesome to have known someone like your dear friend? I've had a couple of ladies like that in my life and I'm so blessed because of it. xoxo

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  7. What a sweet memory of your Sunday School teacher! You will always think of her when the flowers bloom and treasure them even more, now that she has gone on to heaven.

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  8. what a wonderful story, and how blessed you were to have known such a woman and have those flowers as a memory!

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  9. Hi RoseMary!

    I'm popping back in to Tag you for a list of 7 random facts about yourself. My list is in my May 19 post.

    Thanks!
    Pat
    Back Porch Musings

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