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Every Day is Precious: Colors outside make Marcy smile inside
By ROB PAYNE
For Williamson A.M.
I don't mind yard work. I like the smell of fresh-cut grass and enjoy being outside. Though I don't play golf, I imagine cutting grass is like the part of playing golf I would like you get to be outside, interact with nature and walk across a lot of grass without the aggravation of trying to get a little ball in a hole with a stick in it.
So when our Sunday school class at Clearview Baptist Church offered to help by doing our yard work, I balked.
I don't get out much anymore, so I had really hoped to do it myself. And since I don't get out much, I hadn't really seen how our yard looked compared to others around us. But I realized the weeds that border the grass had grown to a girth that was beyond the capacity of my cordless electric weed eater. After several of his gentle requests, I let Ronn use his gasoline weed eater to clean up and the yard looked great.
Mike and Kathy bring dinner almost every month and Mike kept asking me if the Sunday school class could help in the yard. After seeing Ronn's improvement to our yard, I finally relented to the Sunday school class's offer. They worked with us to schedule a date and asked what we wanted done: What needs to be planted in the beds? What kind of mulch did we want? What color should the deck be stained?
The work was planned as a group project on a Saturday. But, being spring in Tennessee, the weather didn't cooperate. The first and second dates were rained out. Then they started coming one or two at a time, taking care of things as the weather allowed.
Mike and Gary pressure-washed the deck to prepare it for painting. Amanda put her passion for plants to work, planting red begonias in the flower beds just before the perfect shower. I was able to make a big contribution I put out some weed-and-feed one morning 10 minutes walking a spreader across the lawn.
And since it was supposed to rain last Saturday, it looked like spreading the mulch would have to be put off for another day.
But Mike and Brian were not afraid. They came and got all the mulch out. I thanked them for making it look like people live here. Our 10-year-old Darcy was quick to remind me, ''People do live here. We live here.''
Marcy got to go outside and see the yard Saturday. The red begonias and pink azaleas against the black mulch framed in the well-trimmed, lush, green lawn the whole picture made Marcy smile. And as Ronn replied in an e-mail to me is there anything more worthwhile? It was the first time since going in her wheelchair that I remember Marcy not being in a hurry to get back in bed.
If you know a family in need, consider helping them with their yard work.
Even if God hasn't given you a green thumb, he has given you the heart to help keep their house a home.
Every Day Is Precious is a column to remind us to treat everyone we see today as if it could be the last time we see them. It is written by Rob Payne, whose wife, Marcy, was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in August 2000. Now 41 years old, she has gone from winning 5 and 10K races to being quadriplegic and on a ventilator at home. For a collection of these columns in book form, more ways to help others, more about Marcy, or to receive e-mail updates on her condition, visit www.EveryDayIsPrecious.com.
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