Northeast Gardening: How I Met, 1 by rcn48

rcn48 wrote:
Andy after your major effort to post such a wonderful story, I'm thinking it's time for me to bite the bullet and get busy typing :) Didn't mean to make everyone wait so long, but trying to figure out how I could make this short and sweet - I'll give it a whirl...

Back in 1996, when I was still dreaming of my own nursery in Maine, I used to frequent the Garden Chat on AOL. Wonderful, small group of people back then but there was one person who caught my attention :) This gentleman and I just seemed to click - he had owned his own nursery since 1981 and offered me a ton of advice in getting my nursery established. He had a great sense of humor and we had a mutual interest in nature and wildflowers. There was even a small group of us who would meet in a private chat room and play a wildflower "guessing game". One of the wildflowers that we discussed was Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) and this intrigued me because by all reports it should have been growing in my woods with the numerous other wildflowers I had growing. This "gentleman" used to tease me because he said I just couldn't find it! In the spring of 1997, this same "gentleman" stopped posting in Garden Chat and alot of changes in my life forced me to no longer participate as much anymore as well. My father was diagnosed with lung cancer that spring and passed away in February of 1998. Losing him devastated me - because we were very close and because he was going to play a significant part in opening my nursery :( My 25 yr marriage was failing and I soon gave up all hope of the nursery. Then - one morning in February of 1999, I was checking my email and an instant message popped up from someone I didn't recognize - however it didn't take me long to figure out who it was - No hi, hello or how are you doing - only "Have you found that Rattlesnake Plantain yet?" I nearly fell out of my chair! Yes, it was my friend from Garden Chat! I felt like a school girl, giddy and nervous, because this man had stirred something in me two years prior and he was again popping out of nowhere! We chatted online for a short time and promised to catch up with emails. It took me two weeks to write him but when I did, we became closer friends than ever and I decided it was time to visit my best friend who lived in Virginia. She had moved from Maine almost 15 years before and coincidentally lived only an hour away from this gentleman! Well, long story short - I visited my "gentleman" (Rick) while in Virginia and we knew we had each found our "soul mate" :) Nine months later I moved to Virginia, started working with Rick at his nursery, and in 2002 we were married! We found a small little church in the Blue Ridge Mountains for the wedding with the most beautiful natural setting - and a stream on the property was filled with wild blue Forget-me-Nots - my father's favorite flower :) I made all the floral arrangements for the ceremony and even made Rick's boutonniere with leaves of the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain to surprise him :) Well, the surprise was on me because he showed up with one he had made himself to surprise me!!!

And in Andy's words - "that's it in a nutshell"
Debbie