early in the spring, about a month before my grandpa's stroke, i began walking for an hour every afternoon. some days i would walk four blocks south to see grandma and grandpa. at eighty-six, grandpa was still quite a gardener, so i always watched for his earliest blooms and each new wave of spring flowers

　　i was especially interested in flowers that year because i was planning to landscape my own yard and i was eager to get grandpa's advice. i thought i knew pretty much what i wanted