Dad’s pride and joy was that lawn. He watered, edged, fertilized, seeded, and weeded. He did everything old Mr. Infanti told him to do. He acted like it was a job, grumbling and complaining about the amount of effort required. But whenever someone suggested he just hire Mr. Infanti or some other landscaper, he’d holler about the waste of money and rant about the kind of people who were too lazy to perform so basic a chore for themselves.
So, when Dad surprised us by dropping dead in the middle of lawn season, we weren’t prepared. Not that anyone’s ever prepared. But we were right in the midst of daily watering, weekly cutting and biweekly edging and even after Dad’s funeral, none of us even discussed changing our routine. At least not until Mom totally lost it.
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