Lady Slippers For My Dad

This post is dedicated to my wonderful Dad,

 heaven's newest gardener. 

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After a forty year battle with diabetes, nearly a year spent in and out of hospitals, hooked up to dialysis machines three times a week, and stuck with insulin needles daily, my Dad passed away in the wee hours of the morning on the 24th of May with my Mom, sister, and I there holding his hands and praying. 

There are no words left to express our deep sense of loss and profound sorrow.  

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My father loved to garden.  He always had a huge vegetable garden and I would talk to him while he watered his plants each summer evening when I was young.  

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He shared his love of the earth, the soil, and the bounty of its harvest with us.

 Later, when I was in my early teens, Dad created a naturalistic woodland garden in the woods behind our house in Massachusetts. He carefully transplanted the white and pink Lady Slippers he found in the woods to grow beside a path of moss and pine needles he created under the canopy of trees.  They thrived under his loving care and each year there were more delicate blooms than the year before. 

  

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Dad was in the Air Force and spent time in Japan and served in Korea. I think he was inspired by the naturalistic beauty of the gardens he saw there.

aaronshintaku.com

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I remember waking one night when there was a full moon that cast an azure blue light upon everything beneath it  The moon was so bright that it illuminated Dad's lady slipper path and beckoned me outside so, for just a moment, I too could be part of that beautifully lit night. 

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It was magical...

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  Just like my Dad.

So, I made a woodland basket to go with my father of mosses, and bits of this and that along with some orchids (because the lady slippers have come and gone here) for Dad to take with him, because to tell you the truth,  

I'm certain he's resting in a garden of peace.

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My dad, heaven's newest gardener.