When we were moving from Saginaw to New Jersey, Grandpa Reeve showed up the morning the truck was leaving with a bag of dirt, some small containers and a packet of peas. He told us we were going to get started on our New Jersey garden by planting peas so that they could sprout and would be ready to put in the ground at our new home. Patiently he helped each of us prepare our pots with soil, add a little water and poke the seeds to proper depth. Each pot got our name on it so we would know which pot was our stewardship to watch over. This was Grandpa's way of telling us how much he loved us and how much he was going to miss us.
Years later when Grandpa died, planting peas was a strong memory we all had of our Grandpa. Even though the ground was still too cold for planting in Michigan, in San Diego where I was living at the time, we were well into the garden season and I was able to find some pea plants at the garden center that were about 6 inches tall. I carried them on the plane to Michigan so that we could put them in front of his casket with all the flowers. For me, the tribute of pea plants was a fitting one for my grandfather who was a farmer at heart and shared his love with us in the form of peas for our garden.
