Mandy's life was cut short, but she lives on

Jim and I first met Amy and Joel at a campground in Cook's Forest, where we happened to pitch our tents on sites right next to each other.

We shook each others' hands and extended welcomes. This began a friendship that has lingered more than 10 years.

Amy and Joel had two daughters, Mandy and Becky. Mandy was the child of Amy's first deep relationship.

In her young adulthood years, Mandy fell in love with a young man who was into traveling and prayer. They went everywhere together, meeting other people and finding opportunities to pray.

They had a van that ran on -- I am not kidding -- vegetable oil from deep fryers. Amy said the van smelled like french fries. French fries are an obsession of mine. I love them.

the phone rang. When the phone rings that early, you know the news cannot be good. Joel spit out that Mandy was in a coma.

He spoke with Jim for a little while. Jim and I lay in bed afterward, in disbelief that something like this could happen to someone we knew. Isn't it always someone else? Mandy was raking leaves one minute, then complained of a headache, drank lots of water and collapsed. She was 28 years old.

We had last seen her a few weeks before in Amy's kitchen. Mandy was helping to prepare a meal, her two children in tow, and she had a huge -- and I mean huge -- bag of fresh spinach. There was a pot on the stove in which she wanted to wilt the spinach in garlic and olive oil. I offered to help.

One other time, we had done this exact same thing -- huge bag of spinach, olive oil, garlic. Mandy, a vegetarian, loved spinach. She would give her kids sautéed mushrooms and spinach, and I would secretly wonder if I could get my grandson to eat the same way. (My grandson eats chicken nuggets and mac/cheese.)

That Sunday morning in our kitchen, Jim and I took to calling Mandy "Spinach Girl" -- it was a way of dealing with our stress. We could not fathom how this could be happening to her. We were holding out hope that this was all going to turn out to be a giant mistake or something.

. He was reluctant to go, but calling off on the weekend is not an option where he works unless you yourself are dying. I went to church and lit a candle, said a prayer.

I got to the hospital, and there were people flowing inside and out of the intensive care unit. Mandy was given no chance of coming out of her coma. Amy and Joel asked Mandy's partner, Andrew, what he wanted to do. He wanted to wait 24 hours. Everyone agreed. They left Mandy on the respirator and we all took turns praying. We wanted a miracle.

Care Of Fresh Cut Roses

Article by Sherry Russell – Powers

The care of fresh cut roses is best done if you cut your roses when partly opened, preferably on a sunny afternoon day. Don’t cut more stem than you need (unless the plant has grown too tall), and make the cut one – quarter inch above a five -part leaf.

Immediately after cutting you should condition them for an hour or two before using them in an arrangement, bouquet, or corsage. This is how you do this:

1 – First wash off any soil or spray residue with warmer, not cold, water that is on the leaves and remove any lower leaves that will be below your water line in the vase.

2 – Scrap off the thorns below the leaves with a sharp knife.

3 – Make a new, sharply slanting cut at the end of the stem and scrape a little bark off the lower inch or so. This helps the roses to absorb water.

4 – Place the roses in room-temperature water. The water should be deep enough to reach up to the lower leaves.

5 – Stand container in a cool place, out of drafts, and in an hour or two the roses will be ready for use.

Roses that have wilted-either because they are not placed in water soon enough or from drafts- can usually be revived by this procedure:

Cut off the lower inch or so of the stem at a slant. Make two scrapes one to two inches long at the base. Place the scraped part in hot water- not boiling, but a little too hot to hold your hand in – and leave them in the water until the water cools. Then place them in cold water up to the base of the flowers. In about an hour they should be totally revived and strong enough for arranging.

Keep your bouquet or arrangement away from direct heat and drafts. Add water and rose food as necessary to keep the stems well immersed.

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