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Local Family Draws Strength From Loved One’s Garden

Thirteen-year old Mikayla Brady is pictured watering the flower garden her mother planted a few weeks before her passing. Submitted photos

The survival of the young, tender sunflower seedlings Jennifer Brady planted in her grandfather’s yard early last spring seemed impossible. Her mother tried to convince her to wait until the start of traditional planting season, when temperatures would be warmer than April’s 35 to 50 degree average.

“I kept telling her it’s too soon, it’s too soon,” said Janine Weber of Frewsburg. “She said, ‘It will be fine.'”

The 41-year-old Jamestown woman had sown the seeds indoors and was anxious to get them in the ground — ground that was very hard and not particularly fertile. Sadly, she did not see the result of her labor, as she passed away unexpectedly on April 26.

To the surprise of her mother, the flower garden not only survived, but flourished, thanks to Jennifer’s daughter, who has lovingly watered and tended the flowers in her great-grandfather Bob Charles’ yard.

“I water every night,” said Mikayla Brady, 13. “My mother always said, ‘I love you to the moon and back.'”

Some of the sunflowers planted by the late Jennifer Brady.

Aunt Jill Rough mows her father’s yard, the property where the flower garden is located. In the beginning, she had to take care not to damage the young plants and when a random moonflower popped up, she placed a brick border around the area.

“I think it (the flowers) has helped them through their grief,” Rough said. “We are doing our best with the garden, but we don’t have the magic touch that Jennifer had.”

A detour, the result of the closing of the bridge on Foote Avenue, leads traffic past the 69 Allen St. property. The sight of the giant flowers undoubtedly brightens the day for the occupants of the passing vehicles.

The family, which also consists of Jennifer’s older daughter Katelyn, son Jaydon and granddaughter Alivia, thinks of their loved one daily since her passing, but today she will be ever-present in their minds as they remember her on what would have been her 42nd birthday.

A lone moonflower.

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