My husband, Michael, suffered through a lot of medical issues over the past two years. He was diagnosed with cancer in August 2018 and had a 12-and-a-half-hour surgery on September 4, 2018, for an aggressive lesion on his tongue. Radiation and Chemotherapy treatments followed. The treatments were successful. He’s been cancer-free for nearly a year. But he was mighty sick for months. He finally began perking up in the late summer of 2019.
One of his last projects before the illness was a 1,000 square foot area in front of our main arena at the ranch. When we purchased the property, most of it was bare dirt with a lot of rocks. We held “rock parties” in the arena with clients, friends, and family members picking up rocks and hauling them away in muck carts to clear it out for better footing for the horses. We planted the area in front of the arena with Kentucky Bluegrass, a border of juniper tams alternating with rose bushes, and a one-gallon size pine tree. It made a great place for clients’ children to play while their siblings took riding lessons, and it looked green and inviting. But we live in the Mojave Desert. Water became expensive, and the grass had to go. For several years it was just another patch of dirt.
Mike began working on that patch of dirt by hunting up rocks for borders and creating a marvelous desert-friendly cactus garden in place of that lovely Kentucky Bluegrass lawn. He picked up rocks from all over the property to set out his planter beds. He bought rocks in different colors and smaller sizes to fill the beds in around his cactus plants. He visited our neighbors and got more rocks when he started to find them scarce on our own 7.5 acres. He spent nearly every morning preening, grooming, and watering his babies and watching them grow and bloom.
Friends and family members continued watering his cactus garden while Mike was ill. Unfortunately, he was too sick to see how beautifully the garden bloomed in the early spring of 2019.
It wasn’t until late summer of 2019 Mike felt good enough to resume his work on his cactus garden. He expanded and planted cactus in front of our home, beside our driveway, and along the front of our fence. Mike came in early one day to let me know he was going to Home Depot for more garden soil. I was working on a book at the time and didn’t mind the hour and a half of peace and quiet I got while he was away. When he didn’t return for three hours, I noticed the time and began to worry. Had he gotten himself into trouble somewhere between here and Home Depot? He had a cell phone with him. Surely, he would have called. I lost my pace with my writing for a few minutes. I heard him coming in the mudroom door and relaxed.
Michael walked directly to my desk and said, “I bought you something.” I looked at him as though he’d just grown another eye in the middle of his forehead. What could he possibly buy for me at Home Depot? He led me to the picture windows in the living room and pointed to the driveway while handing me a set of car keys. There in the driveway sat a shiny black Chevrolet Camaro. I nearly fainted for a couple of reasons. Who in their right mind buys a low-ground-clearance black vehicle to drive on dirt roads? Holy Cow! We’d just talked about buying a new truck in five months, budgeting carefully for that purchase. He’d been driving me crazy with all the talk about buying a truck. Here in our driveway sat a gorgeous sports car, not a truck at all. I also wondered how he’d been able to purchase anything that major when he can barely speak. Car dealers are incredibly motivated.
After several days of shock, I came to realize it was the best thing he did for himself in a long time. He loves that car! He wears at least two Chevy Camaro tee shirts, a ball cap, and bought several books about the history of the Camaro and joined a local Camaro Car Club.
The Camaro lived in our barn during storms this winter, snug under a cover next to the stalls that our horses live in during inclement weather. That car gets washed by hand, waxed, buffed out, vacuumed, dusted, and gleams right outside the window so he can see it during the day.
As for him “buying it for me,” well I’ve driven it four times in two months, three of which were driving him to a doctor’s appointment. I think he’s found a new love in his life, and it has given him a new lease on life. For that I am incredibly grateful, but I will continue to tease him over it.
For Christmas this year I gave him an early present. I pulled the money from savings to re-do the muffler system and put the rumble back in his ride. Now, it not only looks like a sports car, but it also sounds like one too.
