(above) We built a new hanging area in the barn for me to hang flowers from last year and will have even more this year. I am officially hooked, and am already asking for more beams and hooks to go up!
Grandaddy’s own words from his book tell us much the same.
Momo came to Huntsville as a young English teacher after graduating from Jacksonville State University. It was here that she met my grandfather, Raymond B. “Ray” Jones, and in 1960 they began a marriage and partnership that would last more than six decades. Their first home together was a little white house (still on Garth Rd) here on the farm, where Grandaddy remembered her planting flowers, decorating, and making a wonderful home for them. This farm would remain her home for the rest of her life—even until her final days.
But Momo’s contribution went much deeper than making a home here. Grandaddy called her his “best fan and encourager” and the stabilizing influence in his life. He wrote that she “had much to do with the survival of the farm and our family business” and also said she deserved “as much credit as anyone for the farm’s survival.” Those are significant words from the man who spent so much of his own life working to preserve this special place.
For me, Momo’s connection to the farm is also found in simpler memories. She loved zinnias, sitting on her front porch overlooking the fields, welcoming people into her home, and, most of all, her family. Even as dementia took so much from her, those things remained. She still loved flowers and that view from her porch. She still sang and quoted Scripture she could no longer read. And she still made sure we knew how deeply she loved us.
When we look at the farm today, we see part of the legacy Momo and Grandaddy built together. Its history is not only a story of cattle, land, and business decisions. It is also the story of people who loved one another, remained faithful through difficult seasons, welcomed others, and cared enough about this place to pass it along.
Momo deserves her place in that story. For 66 years, this farm was her home, and it is a better place today because she was here.
Those sideways flowers? I cut them and have hung them to dry. They will now bring a different kind of beauty into the seasons ahead.
Those weeds? They prompted me to mow the bed down sooner than I normally would, making room for starting a new flower variety.
My injury? It was at first so painful and discouraging, yet it has taught me patience, reliance on others and that healing takes time.
The trials in the garden pale in comparison to the trials of life, but if God meets me in the weeds, how much more faithfully does He meet us in our struggles?
In James 1:2-3 it says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
Perseverance. Joy. Faith. Beauty.
This is the unexpected goodness in times of trial.
Maybe your life feels a little like my August garden. Maybe the trials you are experiencing seem, like weeds, to overwhelm everything else. Take heart, because sometimes joy is unexpected.
The trials may lead to a different kind of beauty in the seasons ahead.
They may make room for something new.
And they might teach you that it is ok to rely on others because healing takes time.
Even when unexpected, there is goodness.
And that goodness is because of God.
As always, we would love to hear from you; please reach out anytime. We are so grateful for your support and thankful we can enjoy a life made more beautiful by flowers and farming.
