Le Jardin: The New Fence

A few days before Christmas, we had a fence installed on our property. It was sort of bitter sweet to me.

My siblings and I were born in this house. The chain-linked fence that separated us from the garden behind us was not only a staple in our lives, but our Mother's as well. I remember climbing over the fence to visit a friend that lived there or to get an ice cream from their never ending supply. In more recent, years we would hop it to "borrow" a lemon or two.

Recently, the neighbors that lived there foreclosed and had to move into a rental. The are into their 80's now and it's just about the saddest thing that happened to me in 2008. They were the original owners; like an Aunt and Uncle to me. How could such a thing happen?

With their move, the garden also went into foreclosure. Mr. G's prized roses just shriveled away and the fruit trees suffered an untimely death. The house remains empty.

At my Mom's funeral, Mrs. G wrote a touching tribute to my Mom entitled, The BackYard Fence. When read by my girlfriend, there was not a dry eye. I find it appropriate to share her story as removing the original fence and seeing their garden decay brought a lot of it back again.

Oh - I forgot to mention the lobster traps. New neighbors moved into the house just right of Mr & Mrs G. Overgrown cypress separated our properites which they promptly removed and replaced with 9 feet of lobster traps! What a horrible site. I could have maybe tolerated it had he had thrown a lobster tail my way once in a while ;) Oh well, he was kind enough to contribute a little $$ towards the project.

We absolutely LOVE the new fence.

The Backyard Fence

By Mrs. G

I met Marilyn over 40 years ago and I'm sure it was at the backyard fence because the children were little then and they had this little ladder that they used to go from one yard to the other to play. As the years went by, the backyard fence seemed to be the meeting place when we had something to share.

My first impression of Marilyn was what a nice Mother she was and over the next 40 years I found out that I was right.

She was interested in anything that her children were involved in so we found that we both were interested in school activities. We both were room Mothers. We worked at the carnivals, the fashion shows and Marilyn finally became PTA President. She was a real worker.

One time at a PTA meeting, Marilyn and I both received awards. So the next day, we met at the fence and with excitement in her voice, she said, "We are going to have our picture made and it will be in the paper". I was ready when she picked me up and I said, "Where are we going?" She said, "Oh just down to the Sentinel." It was my favorite paper at the time. It was a good picture and I still have that picture somewhere in one of my albums.

After Elementary school, the kids didn't want us involved in PTA but Marilyn went on to Boy Scouts, bowling and skiing. Anything the kids were involved in, there she was always sharing and of course, it was discussed at the backyard fence.

Finally, all were in high school and there were proms, formals and graduations. Then it was college, looking for jobs, boyfriends, girlfriends, then weddings - this one and that one and even just one last year. We shared pictures and we thought life couldn't be any better, but we were wrong. Guess wheat Marilyn and I suddenly realized? We were Grandmothers! What a joy. She was always talking about their education, ice-skating and their grades. She was so proud of the smaller children. And she got to see her youngest born.

Oh yes, her children and grandchildren came first but she had another love. She was a nurse. She was my husband Bob's nurse one weekend. He gave her a bad time and she made him obey the rules. It was fun for both.

We had so much fun over the years but about 18 months ago, at the fence, she told me with big tears that she had 9 months to live. It was such a shock.

She's gone now but she will never be forgotten and always when any part of the "G" family looks up the hill and at the the backyard fence, we will think of Marilyn and over 40 years of sweet, sweet memories.

Mr & Mrs G's Garden - Before