JESSIE'S LILAC

My Grand mother "Jessie Porter" planted a lilac bush behind #87. in 1918

My Mom "Beatrice" cut it down when I was very young to make a place for

a cloths line. The bush grew back from the roots and when we moved in

59 it was a fine tree.

My brother "Fred Porter" went out to the Southside, dug it up and

replanted it at the new place in Kilbride.I took a sucker from that

bush and planted it in The Codroy Valley.

Here is Jessie's great-great grand daughter, Patti Hardy

in front of Jessie's Lilac!

to be added

I am going off track.When I visited The Coast Guard Base on the Southside

in June, 1998, I couldn't resist going to the end of the building and having

a look

There low and behold Jessie's Lilac had grown again from the roots

that were left,it was in full bloom!!! Guess what?? I sat on the edge of the

wharf and I cried!!

I cried for the dear people who have passed on, for their

children, whom I have lost contact, for a neighbourhood that "progress"

destroyed.

I think I cried more for myself and the memory of returning home in 58, after after

a year away and finding everything Mom and Dad could do with out packed in boxes.

The next time I came home, my parents had move, and the demolition had begun

I feel like Jessie's Lilac, torn up by the roots.


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