Ralph is one of my grinder … I love the bozo and I think it ’s worth ending my round of offprint by re - posting this tribute to a in effect and reverent man . This situation was originally published on October 3rd , 2013.-DTG
Some age ago we run through a bad patch financially . I had started my first stage business a year before . It did magnificently for about 13 months … then I lose two out of three clients within a few weeks of each other .
At that point we were renting a house down in South Florida and the housing boom was still in full swing . Our rent for an 800 straight foot home with a 1/10 acre thou in a do work class locality was $ 1250 per month .
That hurt . I know it ’s not New York or California prices , but I ’m the solitary breadwinner with a few mouth to tip .
Facing a major smasher to our hard cash flow , we had two classical pick : increase our income or reduce our expenses . Since well - paying clients are few and far between , and it was the holiday season , intend nailing the great unwashed down was next to impossible , we decided for the latter .
My Aunt Jeanette managed properties for a lilliputian mobile home community in the nowhere town of Frostproof . We called her about lease a berth and find oneself that a 1500 square foot house was available for half our current tear .
A major bonus of this move was that I got to have a go at it Grandpa Ralph . He ’s my Uncle Steve ’s father , make us tenuously concern through union . Ralph is a withdraw missioner who grew up in a husbandry family in Southern California , then spend much of his grownup spirit overseas in the jungle of Ecuador .
He ’s also an astonishing gardener .
I spend a lot of hours visiting him in his tropical backyard gardens . His office was two houses down and across the street from ours , so it was well-to-do to luxate off in the middle of the day and chat about citrous fruit , wild Indian tribes or the subtle and not - so - subtle differences between church denominations .
I ’d tell my wife “ Hey , I ’m going for a walk … be back in a few , ” and she ’d laugh . “ If you ’re go to Ralph ’s , I guess I ’ll see you in a few time of day … ”
Ralph also built a solid food forest which I savour before I even knew what a “ intellectual nourishment forest ” was .
In his small backyard , he group together at least a dozen citrus fruit trees along with papaya tree , cassava , guava , avocados and even a mango tree . you’re able to see the mango tree in the picture behind us . Those are not guess to arise in Frostproof , which , despite its name , is not at all frost - free . Bonus : he grew that mango tree tree diagram from a seed he fetch from my biological grandpa ’s tree down in Fort Lauderdale .
I got to visit Ralph during our late trip after not get wind him for about five long time . Unfortunately , he ’s lost a band of trees thanks to frosts and the fact that he ’s no longer to work the ground much anymore . The wood woodland is down to just the group of citrus trees … and they ’re not looking so hot . The Mangifera indica is doing okay but never bear fruit … and he miss his mature Persea Americana trees to laurel wilt or something interchangeable .
I think asking him once why his plants search so amazingly green and healthy .
“ MiracleGro , ” he tell me . “ You just mix it up and spray the leafage . You do n’t even put it on the roots or in the basis . Just on the leave ! And then they turn green . ”
Then he winked at me . “ Maybe THAT ’S the miracle ! ”
Even though Ralph ’s garden are n’t the wild richness they used to be , he has a bequest . His baby follow God … he ’s been married to the same wonderful woman for 66 years … and he ’s always glad to drop time with a friend discussing things that weigh more than plant , freeze or magic fertiliser .
I miss being neighbors with him . At a point in time where I was cave in and accentuate , his yard was my leakage from deadline and bills .
Thank you , Ralph .
