When I left Florida and my business, and retired to New Mexico, I did not expect a long life. My heart had been broken by Linda's death. And, when her mother died shortly after moving here, I felt smothered by death.

Shortly after Corinne and I got together, she joined the National Arbor Association, and began receiving baby trees in the mail. She took such pleasure in mothering them, planting them in just the right spots, and visualizing them ten years in the future, that I began seeing life differently. More positively.

Then came Corinne's cancer diagnosis. And, to my delight, she redoubled her planting efforts in the fall, preparing for the new blossoms in the spring. She insisted that we stop in the country one day returning from treatment at the clinic, so she could collect seeds from the drying, brown roadside sunflowers that had given us such joy a month before. And, when we got home, she planted them.

What a spirit!