The WRAL Azalea Gardens: A path to happy memories
Today my great company offered walking tours through the WRAL Azalea Gardens, led by our kind property management staffer Ken Sandy. As part of my job, I walked through with each group taking photos. The gardens were abuzz with activity. Several artists had set up easels and were capturing the glorious colors in paint.
WRAL-TV Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner and News Photographer Luke Notestine were doing live stand-ups with the weather forecast during the noon newscast. Others simply walked down the paths taking in the beauty.
Those strolling tours reminded me of a happy time with my mom.
When Mom would come visit, staying with me on some weekends so Dad could get a break to go fishing with my uncle, I would look for things we could do. As Mom’s memory slipped, she would sit sedentary, and I desperately wanted to get her moving. Mom would resist a lot of walking, so I would find “carrots” to pique her interest.
One time we took Alicia and met a friend of mine and her children on the North Carolina Museum of Art trail. Mom loved kids and enjoyed interacting with them. That afternoon Alicia and my friend’s son rolled down a hill in the grass, getting itchy and loving it all at the same time. Mom was in heaven.
A particular favorite of mine was to bring Mom to the WRAL Azalea Gardens. Capitol Broadcasting’s Property Management staff has done a great job of making the paths more and more accessible over the years. Mom’s footing was not always sure, and we frequently locked arms as we walked together, so I could help be a stabilizing force.
She loved flowers and plants and over decades had added “volunteer” plants from the woods or cuttings from neighbors and friends to her yard. (She explained to me that “volunteer” plants are those that came up on their own.) Seeing the WRAL Gardens brought that love alive in her again.
In fact, a memory in the gardens that stands out strongly was shortly after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. She came to Raleigh to go with me and my daughter and husband to the CBC Easter Egg Hunt. Annually we have a spring party for our employees and their children. As part of my job, I take photos. So frequently Mom would come go with us to help keep an eye on Alicia while I worked.
We were tentative in our new-found knowledge as we approached that event together, feeling a little vulnerable. That day we ended up taking what has become my favorite photo of us, the one I used to introduce this blog on WRAL’s Go Ask Mom in October 2022.
I am so lucky to work in a place with such beauty, created by our company’s founder A.J. Fletcher and which his grandson, Jim Goodmon, has cherished and enhanced. From our annual spring employee tours to special events like the blooming of the century plant last night or the “Turn the Gardens Red” event to celebrate the NC State Wolfpack this year. I’m happy for the opportunities and reminders to go out and enjoy beauty.
And I loved being able to share that gift to the community with my mom.
Today those magical paths took me back in time to happy, special memories that bloomed for me again.
