Iris Lee Underwood

I drove by the little lake at the end of our winding road where two white swans abide. The past thirty-some years, I’ve seldom spied this bashful pair swimming together on the lake. My timing has never coincided with a glimpse of them gliding along with their chicks, named “cygnets”.

I met Andy, a licensed builder, in a Michigan State University extension class in 2004. Adapting to a serious health diagnosis, Andy sought employment to suit his new limitations. And I was a writer who needed a handyman to help build my vision of a lavender farm.

“House plants are an exacting pleasure, and if we are not willing to meet their exactions we need not wonder if the pleasure be short.” Richardson Wright, “Gardeners Bed-Book”, December 11 entry.

One hundred and forty-three years after Thomas Edison and Edward Johnson, another inventor, introduced the world to electric lights on buildings, and strings of lights on Christmas trees, I decided to again illuminate our grape arbor and pergola.

In 1965, I spent some babysitting money to buy a ticket for a “Patch of Blue”, a popular movie at the time. The story of Selina D’Arcey, a white teenager blinded at five-years old by her abusive mother, and later befriended by a kind, black man, left a lasting impression upon my life.

Within the passing of a November day, my doctor diagnosed an advanced case of endometriosis, and scheduled surgery the week before Christmas 1982. The following day, as mothers and grandmothers are prone to do, Mom called and said, “I’m coming to help you and Mel with the girls.”

“We’ll be on the road tomorrow morning,” my sister Patty said when I called with the heartbreaking news of my husband’s passing.

A neighbor, the son of a good friend, called several weeks ago. “Iris, my family would like to invite you to join us for lunch at Buddy’s Pizza the Saturday before Easter day.”

Conditions seemed favorable May 30, 2015, for planting trees and shrubs on our property: pleasant weather, an agreeable team of husband and wife, and a Dingo post hole digger with loader waiting for us at Romeo Rental.

I look rather odd, so I’m keeping close to home. I have an appointment in four days for the doctor to remove the bandage he taped across the left side of my nose.