A Flower (and much more) from Willie

July 11, 2024

A Flower (and much more) from Willie

My next door neighbor died recently and we have been mourning our community loss. A little over a week ago her family and friends buried her and we were glad, but sad, to be there with them.

We lived just across the road from Willie, which was her real and true name. I say community because over decades, she probably took care of (babysat) dozens of children who knew her well. Some were her grandchildren and great grands but many were just local school children who either needed care before and after school. Or they were preschoolers, and got to drink from her fountain of love and joy.

I loved her smile which took up her whole face. When we moved to our current home, about 15 years ago, she had undergone a stroke, I think it was, but made a great recovery. I also have many memories of watching her work in her garden, back bending work even in her upper 80s, pulling weeds, planting beans, corn and what have you. She and her husband would also sit on the porch come fall and hull black walnuts, from their tree and others. Come spring, Willie would ask me if I wanted some of their asparagus shoots, or as fall neared, she would ask if I wanted some dill for pickles. She enjoyed reading the paper, and took scores of photos—I’m guessing hundreds and even thousands, back in the day before anyone had cell phones.

We would invite them over or out for supper; my husband loved talking and laughing with her husband, whose booming laughter rang out across our yard to our own front porch. Harold took good care of Willie, even learning to cook for both of them when she was no longer able to cook the way she used to.

At one point in our years across the road, she gave me some flower starts that I dutifully planted and soon they took over my entire flower bed in front of the house. I had no idea how they would multiply, but they were delightful. In recent years I gradually tried to keep them from overtaking the flower bed. Then here in July a week after her memorial service, this reminder of dear Willie popped up. And more!

At times we went for drives with Willie and Harold in our minivan, for as long as she could manage to get up in it, and my husband would be asking Harold about who used to live where, or what did this or that neighbor do, and just trying to get to know community members.

My mother and Willie enjoyed laughing together when Mom visited us from Indiana. Mom became a widow in 2006, just a year before we moved into our house across the road from Willie. My mother was known for being funny, or fun loving, maybe I should say, just laughing up a storm, and Willie loved it as much as Mom did.

I hope Mom and Willie have found each other in the promised land, wherever that is and whatever form their spirits continue. I know one thing, I miss them both. My husband misses Harold’s laughter, may it ring out forever.

I do have one regret that I never realized was a hurt until years into our living across the road. Willie loved to sit on her porch and look at the mountains to the east, a view which was impeded by our house. If we had known, we could have easily situated our house slightly to the north, and she would have still had her view. But she was good natured about it, and I know that now she has the grandest of views and is singing the best music ever, and taking photographs without ever running out of film.

Here you are, Willie, only it’s me taking the pictures and still loving you, plus many memories.