by Lolita Townsend

Created on: May 28, 2008   Last Updated: June 10, 2008

I can recall helping my grandparents in the garden all through my young life but one particular year stands out to me. It was July of 1989 that I moved into my grandparents' house to help care for my grandfather and to spend time with my grandmother whom I looked up to more than anyone I had ever known.

I was in charge of planting the morning glory seeds and pulling weeds from all of the beds. My grandma always had the best garden in the neighborhood and she worked hard every day to keep it that way. She loved her plants and flowers. Yellow roses were always her favorite but this year they received less attention then the morning glory plants.

That summer was to be our best garden year ever. Everything was growing especially well but the morning glory plants were our pride. My grandmother asked me to tie some strings across the deck cover to allow the vines of the morning glory plants to climb. They had already grown so large that they had taken over the lattice that enclosed the deck and in just a few weeks time.

After I completed that chore my grandmother and I sat on the deck and shared some iced tea. She made the best sweet tea of anyone I had ever known. Grandma said, "I can't believe how large those leaves on those plants are. I don't think I have ever seen them get this large." I replied, "Maybe putting the extra potting soil into the bed helped them to be even larger. Good dirt equals good growing, or at least that is what grandpa always told me." She laughed and said, "He does grow the biggest tomatoes of anyone I know."

We sat on the deck enjoying the view of the beautiful lilies and the buckets of tomato plants the surrounded the deck watching the sun go down and sharing memories of gardens we had made in the past. Again we talked about how lush and full the gardens were this year. As we talked you could see that the morning glory plants were moving to wrap there vines around the strings that I had tied.

"Look Grandma, you can actually see them moving, that is crazy?" She teased me a bit and said, "You have such a vivid imagination." I was serious, I had actually seen them move and as much as she thought I was joking I was praying that she would get the chance to see them move.

I couldn't believe that you could actually watch a plant grow in just that short amount of time but I was watching it happen right before my eyes. I pleaded with her to look and just watch one section for a few minutes. She laughed but agreed to give it a chance. I know she thought

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