Beautiful Blossoms of All Kinds

Flowers are things of beauty that can bring light and joy, even in dark times.

I have asked my mother if there were any flowers around her old home place when she was growing up. She tells me that the yard around their house was bare, even of much grass. Copperheads were abundant and dangerous and a bare yard thwarted snakes hiding in the grass.

Still, nature provided flowers for my Grandma Rachel’s family: the delicate blossoms on the redbuds that dotted the hillsides, the lovely white of the dogwoods that could almost look like snow, the flowers of the blackberry brambles that graced the hills with the promise of beautiful berries in the summer, the blooms on the pear tree and the apple tree that promised delicious fruit later in the year. Even the blossoms on the plants in the garden, were things of beauty that promised full bellies come winter.

 

                                    Grandma Rachel Allen Nolen and her sister Alta Allen Cantrell

Grandma Rachel did “plant” another kind of flower garden. She and her mother pieced the top for a flower garden quilt made from colorful scraps of cloth salvaged from flour and feed sacks. She finished piecing the top, but died at the age of 34 from tuberculosis before she could quilt it. Her sister, my Great-aunt Alta later finished the quilt and I am blessed to be able to own and cherish it.

 

                                                       Grandma Rachel's flower garden

Even decades after her death, God is providing flowers for Grandma Rachel. She is buried in a very rural, hillside cemetery in a different state and we can rarely visit her grave. A few years back when I was able to go with my parents to do some genealogical research in the area, we got to visit Grandma Rachel’s grave. There were little red wildflowers growing on the graves. My Mom said, “Isn’t it nice that God provides flowers for folks who have no family around to provide them?” So still, God is providing lovely flowers for Grandma and others.

 

 

Now, when I think of Grandma Smith, I think of moss roses and hollyhocks. Dad tells me that one year Grandma grew dahlias that were as big as dinner plates, but that must have been before my time. She had at least two planters made from old tires and painted white. She always had moss roses in these planters. In the side yard, there were hollyhock bushes that bloomed profusely with colorful flowers.

 

                                                       Grandma Nancy Middleton Smith
 

Now, my mom loves so many kinds of flowers but I recall a flower bed rimmed with stones that my mom had when I was a child. It was always filled with beautiful zinnias and marigolds. Between the stones and the colorful flowers were low-growing hens and chicks. So, zinnias and marigold make me think of Mom.

 

                                                         Me admiring Mom's flowers

Peonies remind me of mom also. She still has a row of peonies and also beds of daffodils and tulips. What we call hummingbird vine climbs the railing of the deck steps. Of course, several family members have had peonies, but they especially make me think of Mom. We call them “pinies”. When I first saw the written word peony, I didn’t have a clue what a peony was.

 

                       Loretta Nolen Smith, Grandson Cameron Hajjafar and Donald Smith

 

                                                            Mom's hummingbird vine

Petunias and four-o’clocks remind me of Great-Aunt Alta. She was more like a grandmother to me than an aunt, as she took in my mother and her baby brother when Grandma Rachel died. Aunt Alta had a wonderful front porch that stretched across the front of her house. There were two adirondack chairs and a porch swing on that porch. In nice weather, that porch was a glorious place to sit and relax.

Aunt Alta had two huge wooden planters that were always filled to bursting with red and white petunias, and four-o’clocks bloomed along the front of the porch also. I can recall gathering round seeds from those four-o’clocks to plant around my home come the next summer but I don’t think that they ever made it into the ground. It would be nice to be able to have some of Aunt Alta’s four-o’clocks to remember her by, but when I see them anywhere I can still be reminded of her. My mom does still have aloe plants that Aunt Alta had given her. Aunt Alta’s house was full of aloe plants.

 

                                   Great Aunt Alta Allen Cantrell holding Cameron Hajjafar, 

                                    Roxanna Hajjafar McCommon and Alex Hajjafar in back

Now, when I think of Irises, I think of my Aunt Fanny and Aunt Lola. Aunt Lola started growing irises. She ordered special bulbs and had a great variety of types. Aunt Fanny saw how beautiful they were and started growing them too. She has several planted around her house.

 

                                                       Aunt Fanny Nolen Sorkey's flowers
 

                                                                 Aunt Fanny's Irises

My Aunt Lola’s house is surrounded by irises, daffodils, poppies, peonies, moss roses … Flowers spring up from the ground, they hang from shepherd’s hooks in baskets, they even spring up from cracks in the driveway. Aunt Lola has really good soil, but her thumb is really, really green. That combo leads to an explosion of colorful beauty in summer. Her brother claims that Aunt Lola could drop a few seeds on her concrete drive and they would grow into the most beautiful flowers you could behold. I don’t think that is an exaggeration! Aunt Lola’s health doesn’t allow her to tend her flowers like I know she would love to, but I pray that memories of the beautiful blossoms of the past will be tenacious and ever bring her joy.

 

                                                                Aunt Lola's poppies

                                                            Aunt Lola's irises and peonies

My brother, David’s favorite flowers were daffodils. He passed away three years ago. I made a little quilted collage piece for his daughter Sydney. It shows him driving away on the tractor after feeding his cows. Daffodils are in the foreground of the piece. Just a couple weeks ago, we cut daffodils from Mom and dad’s yard and placed them on his grave.

 

   

I also love daffodils and I love dandelions too. I know that many folks don’t care for dandelions and consider them weeds, but I think that I might have that seasonal affective disorder as I get kind of blue in the winter. Daffodils and dandelions arrive fairly early and remind me that my favorite season Spring is on the way! They are light bright spots of cheery sunshine in the yard! I love wild violets also. 

 

My daughter Alex loves sunflowers. One year her papaw planted a row of sunflowers in his garden for her. So when I see or think of sunflowers, I think of Alex.

 

                                              Alex Hajjafar and Papaw Donald Smith

I have one grandchild, my Jooniebug. The flower that I associate with her and her mother Roxanna is the camellia. My daughter had miscarried before getting pregnant with Jooniebug and she had a worrisome pregnancy. We were afraid that she would miscarry again.

One day, Roxanna called me and told me that she had seen a little nest in the camellia bush outside her back door. It eventually was filled with four beautiful blue robin’s eggs. Whenever she became worried, I would tell her that I believed that little nest was a sign from God that Jooniebug would be fine. Whenever she was worried, I reminded her of that robin’s nest.

 

 

 

Well, Jooniebug did have to be in the NICU for several days after she was born, but she came home on Thanksgiving Day. On that late November day, so close to winter, the camellia bush that had held that nest of hope was full of lush pink blossoms.

 

   

So, here is a collection of the flowers I have known and the folks that they remind me of. These flowers spring from the earth and as they emerge, sweet memories of loved ones emerge with them. I would say that my truly favorite flowers are the flowers that those emerging blossoms bring to my mind. The real blossoms are my parents, my children, my granddaughter, my aunts and uncles, my nieces and nephews, my cousins of all sorts... They are the flowers who have grown from the flower gardens started so very long ago when our ancestors married and planted the next generation, the next generation, and the next generation... of flowers.

 

 

 
                                          Wallace Smith, Grandma Nancy Middleton Smith 

                           holding Donald Smith, Dale Smith, Davilee Smith Sutherland Clark, 

                                        and Carmen Smith Fuller Meinzer standing in rear

                                      Grandpa Dave Smith, Grandma Nancy Middleton Smith, 

                                     Davilee Smith Sutherland Clark, and Dale Smith in front;

                                         Carmen Smith Fuller Meinzer, Hortense Smith Allen, 

                                       Wallace Smith, Gayle Smith, and Donald Smith in back

                                                                          

                                                  The Nolen kids before Johnnie was born;                              

                                     Ronnie Nolen in front; Billy Nolen and Fanny Nolen Sorkey

                                            in middle, Loretta Nolen Smith holding Olen Nolen

                                                       and Lola Nolen Walton Gatlin in rear

  

                                       David Smith with his daughter Sydney Smith Haywood

                                      April Smith Hajjafar, Loretta Nolen Smith, Don Smith  

                                    and David Smith sitting; Mohammad Hajjafar, Alex Hajjafar, 

                                                   and Sydney Smith Haywood standing

                            Jessica Castles Sorkey holding Disco in front; Loretta Nolen Smith, 

                        Steven Sorkey, Roxanna Hajjafar McCommon and Fanny Nolen Sorkey;               

                                        Michael Sorkey and April Smith Hajjafar in rear

                                                     

                                                                  Four Generations

                                           Lola Nolen Walton Gatliff, Debby Walton Angel, 

                                                   Maria Angel Mergy and Ashley Mergy
 

                                                                        Four Generations

                             Shawna Partin Snelling, Meagan Snelling, Kathy Walton Partin,

                                          Lola Nolen Walton Gatliff and AnnaKate Snelling

                                                                   Four Generations

                                               Loretta Nolen Smith sitting, April Smith Hajjafar,

                        Roxanna Hajjafar McCommon holding Harper "Jooniebug" McCommon

 

                       Alex Hajjafar, Loretta Nolen Smith and Sydney Smith Haywood sitting;

   April Smith Hajjafar, Roxanna Hajjafar McCommon and Harper Jooniebug McCommon in middle;

                                 Mohammad Hajjafar, Cameron Hajjafar and Donald Smith in rear

                                    Lola Nolen Walton Gatliff sitting; Fanny Nolen Sorkey, 

                                           Olen Nolen, and Loretta Nolen Smith standing

                              Loretta Nolen Smith and Harper Jooniebug McCommon in chair;

                                     Roxanna Hajjafar McCommon, Mohammad Hajjafar, 

                                              April Smith Hajjafar and Donald Smith

                    Alex Hajjafar, Mohammad Hajjafar, Roxanna Hajjafar McCommon 

        holding Harper Jooniebug McCommon, Cameron Hajjafar and April Smith Hajjafar
 

 

                                  Madeline Sorkey, Fanny Nolen Sorkey and David Sorkey

                     Grannyma April Smith Hajjafar and Harper Jooniebug McCommon

Yes, my truly favorite flowers are my family members themselves; and boy oh boy, my family makes one beautiful and varied garden! The beautiful blossoms that we plant will hopefully bring light and joy for generations to come!