Gardening for life
Talarico, Susette M.
THE LAS T WORD GARDENING FOR LIFE Susette M. Talarico I n February 1998,1 was diag nosed with recurring breast cancer. It had been seven years since I first had, and then supposedly...
...My flowers, symbols of the light and grace that sustain all living things, continue to nourish...
...Commonweal 3 1 October 8,1999...
...Because Holy Week coincided with the completion of radiation therapy, it wasn't hard to enter into the Paschal mystery, to celebrate the glories of life in the season of resurrection and renewal...
...Struggling to deal with this reality, Rodger and I considered a variety of coping strategies...
...So Porter Taylor's counsel was unexpected—and not particularly welcome...
...Radiation had left me only a little tired...
...when I became pregnant I told my husband we could have a baby or squash but not both...
...Hoping to deal with my spiritual malaise as well as the physical symptoms, I spoke with my pastor and good friend, Porter Taylor...
...In the early years of our marriage I had dallied with plantings, with no success...
...chemotherapy brought nausea, real fatigue, loss of hair: stark reminders that I was really and truly ill...
...Now, I have never been one to garden...
...Picking up on the idea, Rodger and Robert attacked the clay-ridden soil around our mailbox and planted a bed of flowers...
...The doctors say I have "no measurable disease"—a way of reminding me that, as before, the cancer could return...
...Tending them is still an important part of my daily prayer, reminding me that God is good and that life, though fragile, is precious...
...Well, it worked...
...Since, as it happened, the diagnosis arrived just before Ash Wednesday, we decided we would "give up cancer for Lent...
...The butterflies that congregated added to the solace, especially in the immediate aftermath of individual treatments...
...Rodger and I had shared the news of recurrence with him on the day of diagnosis...
...during all that time I never failed to be soothed by the flowers around the mailbox and on my garden deck...
...The radiation treatments started immediately, so that my daily trips to the hospital became my Lenten discipline...
...The chemotherapy went on for months...
...Things changed in the weeks after Easter, when I entered into chemotherapy treatment...
...The fatigue is gone, my hair has returned, I feel quite well...
...But not one that called for digging and weeding (I lacked energy...
...It had been seven years since I first had, and then supposedly overcame, the disease, so the news came as a shock to me, my husband, Rodger, and our teen-age son, Robert...
...Without hesitation he said, "Plant a garden...
...On reflection, though, and knowing that I wasn't up for more formal prayer, I decided that maybe after all a flower garden was in order...
...Now I asked him directly what spiritual exercise he would suggest to help me cope with the effects of chemotherapy...
...The treatments ended some months ago...
...instead, I would plant in pots that could live on our deck...
...Resting outdoors and luxuriating in my garden became my chemotherapy prayer...
...Sharon Shouse, a good green-thumbed friend, helped me choose several varieties of flowering plants...
...D Susette M. Talarico is a professor in the department of political science, the University of Georgia...
...Awareness of the renewed struggle with cancer became our Easter Vigil...
...And they actually did flower, whereupon I added other plants and soon had a fragrant and festive refuge...
...Rodger has often enough poked fun at his Yankee wife's ignorance of the ways of soil...
...There are only two fundamental truths, he said then: God is good and life is fragile...
Vol. 126 • October 1999 • No. 17
