Accessible Gardening: Compassion for Physically Challanged Gardeners #15, 1 by seacanepain

seacanepain wrote:
Naw, not the legs. It was the way Kay combined being smart, being honestly concerned about others and still having an attitude that caught my attention when I was a kid. I first really noticed her at my brother’s wedding rehearsal. She was doing the hippie look while everyone else was still doing the 50’s look in my conservative part of the world. She joked that I was her date for the wedding and didn’t talk down to me the way most of my brother’s friends did. The lady who was in charge of organizing the wedding was witchy. She took some sort of sadistic pleasure from needling and insulting the young women in “helpful’, backhanded ways, especially Kay and her sister. She mentioned again and again how difficult it was to make the wedding party look right being as “certain of the young ladies” were so awkwardly tall. She also made a point of very publically giving Kay the name of a local beautician who could “fix the bad dye job” her obviously incompetent hairdresser in Alabama had done. (I think the lady knew Kay’s hair was NATURALLY brindled and knew also she was self-conscious about it. Kay had been known to do some radical off-the-wall things when she was angry. My brother was taking bets on what she would look like the day of the wedding. They thought she would show up in full hippie regalia just for spite.
It was a surprise to everyone when she did everything the witch told her to do. She looked terrible and, with a smile, gave the wicked witch full credit for her new look. When my brother expressed a little disappointment that she hadn’t done anything radical to tweak the woman’s nose, Kay just smiled and said in the heavy southern drawl she still had back then, “You don’t hang fools, Sugar. There are times when it’s best just to keep feeding them out as much slack as you can find in the rope. A fool will get all tangled up and hang themselves.” My brother never quite got it, but I did.” The bride has wonderful memories of the day, even though it did end in divorce. My nieces and nephews from that marriage have these wonderful pictures of their parents and they get to double over laughing looking at their Aunt and Uncle “in the old days” when the age difference was noticeable.
It wasn’t until years later, when I was about 14; I began to notice my old friend had nice legs. lol.
Vickie, one of my BIL’s recently had a heart attack so I guess there is some history of it in Kay’s family. The doctor’s said it wasn’t his first heart attack. That concerns me. How can someone not know they are having a heart attack? I think of the times Kay has doubled over from shooting pains in her shoulder, and then waved it off a few minutes later as nothing serious. Have you ever experienced anything like that? I mean, how do you know when it is time to go to the hospital
Katie, I finally took the hair trimmers to Tater-dog. She's enough of a lab to be double coated. I was finding her hair all over the house. She hates the electric trimmer, but loves it when all the winter hair is gone. I think maybe dogs don't shed as easily when they are older. (Jim)
Photo: I was the ring bearer and about 8 at the time. Photos like this sure make you realize how far photograpy has come in 40 years.