#sonomastrong

Found one last four leaf clover in a patch of unburned grass in the backyard where we always used to find them. In the midst of a lot of shit, there is still some good. Keep looking for the good. 

Hi everyone,

I would like to provide you with some updates about Opa’s Garden.

On Monday, October 9th, my Oma and Opa’s house was one of the thousands of homes destroyed in the wildfires and firestorm in Santa Rosa, California. The most important thing is that all of my family members were evacuated safely and everyone is ok.  

That said, the home that we all loved is merely a heap of debris now - ashes, roof tiles, warped metal, almost unrecognizable appliances and cars, and fragments of the beautiful life my grandparents built together.

The garden near the back of the property was mostly untouched somehow. Just a few of the vegetable bed frames burned. A few of the fruit trees even made it. But, as we figure out how the property will be cleared, we aren’t sure yet if it will make sense to keep what is left or if it makes more sense to clear everything to give us a clean slate for rebuilding.

Here’s the crazy cool thing about gardens though - plants have this incredible habit of growing in the most unlikely of places. They have a natural resiliency that is hard to explain. So I know that when the time is right, someday there will be another garden to carry Opa’s memory through.  

Thanks for all of your support the last couple of years. It was wonderful to share the garden with all of you each summer.

With love and gratitude,
Stephanie