Another yellow poppy: around the corner and past my other neighbors house, there is this field – where wild flowers grow in abundance.
And I finally figured out why I take so many pictures of flowers! After a month and a half of doing this project, it’s about time, don’t you think?
It’s really about my mother . . . back in April she suffered from brain seizures caused by a brain tumor, which the family just found out she has had for a number of years. It is the type of tumor that is typically harmless until some physiological change happens in the body that causes it to swell; the swelling then causes the tumor to push against other parts of the brain, resulting in the seizures. One would think that surgery would be necessary, but at the age of 83 and the frailty of my mother, the neurologists think it better not to try to remove it.
The results of the seizures and subsequent pneumonia have left my mother in an extreme weakened state, and practically immobilized – she has been in a rehabilitation center ever since undergoing physical therapy to help her walk and use her arms again. While she has not made the best progress due to complications of pneumonia and staff infections, she makes a little bit everyday and we are hopeful that she will be able to return home soon.
My mother has led an extraordinary life: raising 10 children, being a fabulous cook, and having a career as what we would probably refer to as a modern-day Food and Beverage Director for such prestigious places like Omni International and Cooperstown Country Club (yes, the Baseball Hall of Fame City). As a young child, I remember her always sending and receiving letters from shut-ins and friends-across-the-miles, and her Christmas card list was a mile long! What I didn’t know until a recent trip home in November to help care for another condition she developed, was that she used to write monthly columns in several magazines that went out to these shut-ins. She would write to people that were in the same condition she now finds herself in and after reading some of the articles, I was blown away with their simplicity and poignancy. I was blown away at how relevant and applicable her articles still are today!
So, now, as my mother lay in this rehabilitation center with no room mates (due to the staff infection), she really has no contact with the outside world save for the daily visits from my Dad and younger sister. So I decided about a month ago, that I would write her a short letter every day – just a quick note to let her know what I was doing, ask her about her progress, and give her a little bit of hope and inspiration. The notes become cards and the cards become photographs – and rather than send her photographs of telephone poles, I use the images of flowers to create the cards.
But I think I have started something I can’t undo – she no longer likes the store bought note cards – she wants more of the ones I make myself! Which says a lot for me, but now I have to keep it up, now I have to be doubly creative – once for this blog, and once for her – both on a daily basis.
So that is why you are seeing so many flower images posted here, just in case you were the least bit curious or tired of them!
for my dear mother - may this bring you a bit of sunshine