This Side of the Mountain

This Side of the Mountain Sidney Saylor Farr Brother Jeems's Green Thumb Mother and Fatiier had five daughters before a son arrived. Mother wanted him named for her only brother, Dewey. Father wanted him named James, for his favorite uncle. I never understood why they didn't give the baby both names. The birth certificate came with the legal name as Dewey Saylor. Father called him James; soon the otíiers, except Mother, did die same. Mountain people soften their words, however, and James became Jeems. It was easier for the tongue to say. Two years after Jeems was born another boy came along and he was named Fred. Two years later the third and last son was born. They named him Lee Roy. There were now seven children in the house. Mother gave birth to three more daughters, and tiiere were ten. When he was twenty Jeems was diagnosed with sudden-onset diabetes and, thereafter, had to have insulin every day. By his late diirties he had eye problems and had had at least a dozen laser treatments. He had to give up his job as a county school bus driver, of course, and it was almost impossible for him to find anotiier job. His health kept failing until he was almost blind, and had heart trouble, and a series ofprostate infections. He lived witii our mother and helped care for her until her death at seventy-six years old. She took care ofhim when he had bad spells and he did die same for her. Eventually he got put on the disability list. Jeems has lived alone since Mother's death in 1986. He cannot see well enough to drive, and is dependent on otiiers to take him where he needs to go. For the most part he just stays home alone. I am glad that he has his plants to love and cherish. He lives in a government-subsidized highrise apartment complex near Pineville. His apartment is tiny, consisting ofa galley-like kitchen, a living room, bedroom, and bath. There are sliding glass doors opening onto a balcony in the living room and bedroom. Mother had a definite green thumb; in fact, when I was young I believed nothing would ever die under her care. Jeems took delight in and cared for her plants just as she had. Every plant stayed healthy and proliferated. I, too, have a green thumb, and have green plants and trees in my house. In my kitchen window I have pots of geraniums and petunias, which bloom all winter. During snowy days, I look at die pink and white petunias and the red geraniums, and marvel at the fresh beauty of the delicate flowers. I started taking Jeems any extra plants I had on hand. Otlier women in the extended family brought their puny, sick plants to him and they would recover and, sometimes, the women took them back home, but every once in a while they would tell him to keep die plants. Soon his apartment was crowded with plants. Today tiiere are plants everywhere: on the coffee table, on the top ofthe TV, and on the floor ofboth rooms in front ofthe glass doors. The plants are Jeems's family, his children. He loves each one and spends many hours working with them. People visit him and are surprised when they come into the living room, because it looks like a greenhouse. Still in his fifties, Jeems moves about like a much older man. He talks about his impending death, and his dearest wish is that people will take his plants and care for them as he has. I worry about him and wish he had someone to be with him. He may have to leave his apartment and his eighteen (at the moment) plants, and go into some kind of nursing home. It breaks my heart to think about it. I am proud that he has found trees and plants and lives among them and fills his life caring for and loving them. Lord knows he has little else. He can't read, or watch much television, because ofhis eyes. He is not able to go places and...