April 30, 2019:

She had chickens, doves, three cats. Rose bushes, about an acre of brush. Possums under the house, raccoons at the screen doors.

She complained of not having Christmas, so we surprised her with a tree. She hated it: it was too large.

Too large: just like the property. After a few months she had to acknowledge that it was too much for her to manage. Deflated: her lifelong dream of home ownership blindsided by scope of effort.

She had a heart attack, caused by smoking, which she falsely blamed on yardwork. After that the brush took over.