Garden Party

My oldest and dearest friends came over to Lotus Island from Lotus City to put my garden to bed,one weekend in October of 2001. That year I had broken my tibia in July and it had not healed by September. The plates and screws had broken and the screws extruded. The fracture was freely mobile and progressively angulating. It was re-operated on in September and bone grafted ,re-plated and re-screwed.I was six months non-weight bearing, in a three wheeled electric scooter, from July until Christmas. I was able to do some gardening from the scooter but it was pretty limited. My friend Janet planned and organized a work party of a dozen old friends with whom we had had many adventures. They were a group that we had hitherto often celebrated Halloween weekend at Janet's country home. The party came with tools and zest and worked like Trojans! Cutting down the perennial beds, cutting down the Gunnera, raking , blowing and hauling an enormous leaf fall from the big leaf maples. They buried a deer discovered under the leaf fall during the rake up period. Work included covering the Gunnera with 3 feet of leaves for the winter, and filling the compost. It was like the old time barn raising. I was on the scooter and raced from post to post giving free advice and exhilarated by the help. I needed to do something without getting in the way of good work. The pianist capped things off with a big turkey dinner and liberal libation. I can't remember a time when I was more touched than by this good natured and spontaneous act of generosity from my friends. It may seem strange that in the midst of my limb disaster I would be so happy, but I was. At the end of it all, I graduated to crutches, partial weight bearing in December, and became "right as rain" by the spring. That was the best garden party I have ever been to!