'Nearer God's heart in a garden'

Notes: The author movingly recalls her mother's love of flowers and gardening, a love that she also shares thanks to her. Two years ago when her mother came to visit with her and her only grandchild in early spring they were disappointed when a hard frost took the magnolia blossoms they had been looking forward to seeing. Tragically, her mother died unexpectedly in February 2013. "I often think I am still frozen. I have often been reminded that no season is truly safe, but I lifted Alia up the other day to touch the big fuzzy buds on our neighbour's magnolia tree. And I'm watching to see how the big trees in the park, so broken in December's [2013] ice storm, will begin to grow again. I think of the last stanza of [Dorothy Frances] Gurney's poem: For he broke it for us in a garden / Under the olive trees / Where the angel of strength was the warden / And the soul of the world found ease. Maybe this spring, I will begin to plant again".

Subjects: Gardens - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada; Grief - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada