women and their stories

As I garden, many women have stories to tell me relating to flowers. One day I met Elise who told me why she likes flowers. She is from a reserve north of Vancouver and she told me of her grandfather's recent funeral. It was a traditional native ceremony that involved spreading flowers over his grave. Her two year old son picked up on that and one of the last times she visited him she said he kept picking flowers for her and bringing them to her. She had been sober for a few years she told me, but now she's back on the streets. She was pretty high at the time. I had told her about the plants getting stolen. Suddenly she broke out into a prayer: "Dear God, please don't let anybody steal these flowers until they have bloomed. Thank you."

Last week Michelle and I were clearing out a space to start a garden at the corner of Cordova and Raymur Ave (the CN triangle). There were a few women working but one in particular started up a conversation with us. She told us she commutes in from Langley to pay her bills. She was one of the few women working down there that aren't addicted. She had a lot of interesting stories and information for us about what goes on around there. She was shocked to hear that people have been stealing plants. She offered to paint us a sign if we brought her wood and paint. She said she's dislexic so I'd have to write it out for her but she's been to art school and thought she should use her training for something.