Late Monday afternoon, Nyel’s nurse snagged an idle wheelchair and suggested that we might like a visit to the Children’s Garden just off one of the main halls on the first floor. We didn’t need a bit of prompting! We were in the elevator and heading four floors downward before you could say “Never Neverland!”
We had been within the temperature-controlled hospital for days and, even though people coming in from the greater world had said it was hot out, we were unprepared for the wave of warmth that greeted us as we entered the garden. Fabulous! In combination with the lush greenery and the sound of dripping, splashing, flowing water from various fountains and ‘water treatments,’ the effect was magical, indeed.
We meandered slowly along the paths, stopping here and there to take a picture or just to sit and enjoy the lushness. Favorite childhood characters were everywhere – a larger-than-life Tinman (holding Dorothy’s slippers) was my favorite. Peeping out from the foliage were life-like sculptures of wading birds and frogs and other little creatures that almost made you want to whisper so as not to disturb them.
Here and there we passed other visitors, all adults as it happened. Perhaps the time of day – dinnertime-ish – was not optimum for children. Or, maybe, the garden was simply intended to evoke the rediscovery of childhood for all of us. If that was the intent, it was totally successful for these two old folks – even though Nyel has always insisted to me that he never was a kid. As I watched him smile at one garden discovery after another, I knew that well-worn idea simply wasn’t true. Either that or, more likely, he’s well into his second childhood! Me, too, and it’s not at all a bad place to be
How great o gets bit of real world air. It is nawesome to see that beautiful smile Nyel. Keep smilin.