On May 3, 1:53*pm, "Val" wrote:
Are you still around? Didn't you, or do you still work at Swanson's?

Val

this is the last personal post that Gardengal sent me April 9th.
She's struggling to just get by right now as a lot of us are.........I
can only hope she won't mind me posting it here since your reply to
author was uncertain. If I have overstepped my boundaries or someone
elses, just consider it my way of trying to be helpful and move past
it.

"I am for all purposes unemployed, dead broke and can't afford my
current housing anymore. So I'm moving at the end of this month. I'll
be staying with family for awhile......until I can find a decent job
and a new place of my own I can afford. This is all pretty short
notice and sorting through and cleaning out 25 years of accumulated
junk is taking up all my time. And I am leaving all my garden - except
for a few choice, small items - behind. I just don't know where I'm
going to land and what it will look like to drag a lot of plants with
me.
We can hopefully both look ahead to better, more secure days and
the promise of future plants to come! I'll keep good thoughts for you
if you keep good thoughts for me!! All the best, Pam"

Her sweet wishes for me were a given. Of course I think good
thoughts about all my wreck gardens friends I've made over the last 14
years. Since this e-mail was at the first of April, and we're now in
the first of May, I can only assume that she's now staying with family
for the time being, has sorted through her accumulated junk and the
tears and pain is soaked in more happy memories and a fresh start,
than hurt and anger. She had some hard times a few years ago and
dropped out of sight as she started to sort through the chaos of the
nursery that she'd worked at successfully for over 15 years (as I
remember) and either it's closing or her decision to leave.

She popped back in recently and was just beginning to answer
questions and had responded back to me, and a few others when I got
word from her that due to the nursery closure, she had taken
employment at Macy's and wasn't earning near enough. But her spirits
were good. This last post was distressing for me simply because she
lives in the Pacific northwest and now that she's moved in with
family, and focused on a different job, and adjusting to sharing a
home with people after being on her own for so long, and I have no way
of just reaching her to console and give her moral support. I sent
her a reply after I got this and that was it. No word since then For
the time being. I have her old snail mail address and I realize now
that I need to drop her a quick line to insure she knows how to reach
me the old fashioned way. Lets just keep a good thought out for all
of us who are struggling with day to day life in these times of
depression and uncertainty.

It's still spring, and I only hope that we can find the magic
and wonder of it all right now amidst the confusion of new beginnings
and unknown hurdles. I will let you know if I hear back from her. I
know she'll do as best as she's capable. Lets all send out some good
thoughts. ok?

madgardener,gardening in containers, over in upper northeastern
Tennessee sending love to Gardengal and many others who are
experiencing the same as too many others right now......zone 7a,
Sunset zone 36