How many people love dad?

[mopinko]

3. i spent many hours in the garden w my da as a kid.

he died when i was 17, and age when most of us hate our parents. i thought i did, and my tears were a confusing shock to me.
he was a drinker, and was very sick for a few yrs at the end. he embarrassed me when i brought ppl home. it took me decades to remember those happy times. and to forgive him.

i always gave him credit for my brains, even tho it turns out u get that from your mom. i hadnt realize how smart she was til late in her life.
and i’ve always had a garden, and gave him credit for that. 11 yrs ago when i started my urban farm, i realized i had so much to thank him for. i’m so much his daughter. he was a great 1st teacher, and told me all the time that i cd b anything i wanted, even a doctor. that was him hoping 1 of his kids wd fulfill his dream, but it was his true feeling that all he wanted was for me to b happy.
i was 1 of the ‘good’ children. there were 7 of us, and some were stars, and some were invisible. i think the dividing line was whether he had hope they might b docs, or otherwise do something great. he died before i cd disappoint him. lol.

a gardening memory that stays w me is that someone once gave him a couple cuttings from a hedge rose. he put them in a mason jar, on the edge of the garage skirt. he probably forgot about them, but we had enough rain to keep them alive. we went to check on them, and discovered the jar had broken, they had fallen into the yard, and were growing. grew into a lovely big bush. red 1s.
i always thought we were both great gardeners, but it was that we had great prairie soil. figured that out when i moved to sandy chicago.