“I always liked being outside. I am allergic to grass, dust, and mildew, but that doesn’t matter. Seeing God’s beauty is healing. I don’t think about the problems of the world or my aches or pains when I am working out here. 

I have lived in Tupelo all of my life, and this was my mother’s house. My mother loved flowers, and I kept her garden going.  My grandfather used to tell us, ‘A lady is not a lady if she doesn’t have flowers in her yard.’

I visit older folks and care for people in hospice. I take them zinnias, prince’s feathers, and other flowers from my garden. I also take flowers to church every Sunday and to my beautician and doctor.  Sometimes I prune the bushes at our church when I know company is coming. Each year, my garden shows what it wants to be, and I follow along. When I had COVID, all I could do was lean against the house and water the plants, then I went back inside. 

I am putting out pink owls and flamingos for my sister who had breast cancer.  The first time she got breast cancer it was hush hush, so it’s good we talk about it more. My sister and I started doing the walks for breast cancer. 

I work harder in my yard than I did during my 32 years of making a living at Walmart. I worked in receiving and was a department manager. My last job was greeter before I retired. Mr. Sam Walton came to the store and talked to us after we opened.  He told us Walmart gave employees 15 cents on the dollar to buy stock in the company. We could pay as low as $2 a pay period. I signed up with the minimum, then invested my raises. The stock did well. I I sold it when I retired and put my money in the bank. My father taught me to save for a rainy day. 

I can be good and I can be bad. Everybody has both sides in them. I taught Sunday School and told my children to keep their bad on the bottom and their good on the top. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory. Every one of us. What I learn, I pass on to someone else, that way it will live on even after I am gone.”

Gwen