by Barrie Silberberg

Created on: June 02, 2008   Last Updated: June 09, 2008

They had just purchased their first home. On a hot August day they would move in. My mother was eight months pregnant with me. The house was brand new and needed some landscaping very badly. The story that my mother continues to tell to this day, over and over again has to do with their bare landscaping. My mother has always loved flowers. Even though she was extremely round, she wanted to plant some flowers in the yard. She went to the nursery and garden store and decided to purchase some zinnia flower seeds. She figured this would be a nice way to start the beginning of their yard, along with the beginning of their family, as their first child, me, was soon to be born. I popped out in September and they began the new adventure of being parents. Time would pass. One day my father went outside to pull weeds in their weed-filled not-so-landscaped yard. He went to show my mother all of the weeds that he had pulled. Laying on top of the pile, were her beautiful, tall zinnia stems. "Those were to be my beautiful zinnia flowers, that I planted when we first moved in," sadly, explained my mother. Those zinnias were never to be seen. My father felt bad, but it was too late, they were out of the ground long enough to not be re-plantable. So....it all began as a bunch of seeds to welcome them into their new home and their new life. To this day, anytime my mother sees zinnias the story emerges, once again for everyone to hear and laugh, remembering that day, so many years ago! She learned to buy full grown flowers to plant from that day forward, and often she purchases zinnias.

Learn more about this author, Barrie Silberberg.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.