remembering leona

by Jane
(Grand Blanc, Mi)

Leona was 86 when she died. It was in the cold winter, when all her plants and flowers she loved so much were resting and waiting for spring. Her walking onions, or perenial onions as she called them were still showing green shoots. She loved her onion plants. My brother rented an upstairs apartment from her, and his son Daniel was fasinated with her walking onions and enjoyed Leonas garden. After her death, Daniel dug me up one of the onion roots, and I planted this one onion, not thinking it would survive. Low and behold, today after 13 years later I have a beautiful walking onion patch. I think of Leona almost everyday when walking past these unique onions. I love them. It happened by chance they are planted right next to a gooseberry bush also given to me by Daniel, as a tiny little seedling that sprouted right under Leona's gooseberry bush. It was just so little, and today it is thriving and content right where it is meant to be, next the onions, as they grew all those years for Leona.