Let me tell you a story…
I was attending my first Bible study here in Georgia after a couple years of trying to find a church and longing for connection with not only just other women in general, but Godly women.
I took the step and signed up to be in a Thursday morning Bible study at the church we were attending. I walked into a room with colorful window treatments, bible verses and silly pictures on the whiteboard, and four large tables with several black chairs in the middle of the room. I sat down with the other women, some who were chatting like old friends and some who seemed new, like me. We went around the room introducing ourselves, the women ranged in age from 30-90 and were all in different stages of life. I listened carefully to find common interests with the younger women because I was longing for new friends. But it was the words of an older woman that caught my attention the most when she said “gardening”. I looked at her more intently and noticed she had perfect silver hair and the sweetest bangs that framed her face so beautifully. She had bright pink cheeks and a soft voice, one that made you know she had never said anything cross to anyone. She was wearing a flowered blouse in a light blue color that complimented her eyes and hair. She gave off the look and energy of a women wo could easily play Mrs. Claus in a smalltown Christmas parade. Her name was Martha, she proudly explained she was named after Martha from the Bible.
Every Thursday, our leader started the group time with an “ice breaker” question. I perked up every time it was Martha’s turn to speak because I knew she was undoubtedly going to mention something about flowers, plants, or gardening. Martha and her husband lived in a neighborhood that backed up to a golf course, their yard happened to share the water hazard of the golf course, and her yard was famous! I learned she had a special Facebook following of people looking for updates about her “Ard Yard” as they lovingly referred to it. Martha posted pictures of mature fruit trees, flowering bushes, and several beautiful individual flowers in their yard. She made you want to jump right into the pictures and walk around surrounded by the beauty they had created in their own personal oasis. But, her yard had changed recently. Tornados had gone through our little town in the Spring of 2022, and I learned that the Ard Yard was a mess. Large trees had fallen and taken out precious bushes and smaller trees that Martha and her husband had planted together for different occasions, trees even hit their home and windows causing damage, and plants that used to be in full shade were now baking in the hot Georgia sun. They had been focusing their efforts on rebuilding sections of their home that were damaged by the storm rather than the Ard Yard itself. It was taking a tole on Martha, but that wasn’t the only reason for her fatigue.
As we all grew in friendship and our prayer requests became more personal, Martha continued to talk about her love for plants and gardening, but started to throw in a few words about upcoming doctors appointments, waiting for test results, and prayers to figure out what was going on.
We walked into group one day and Martha had an announcement about her prayer requests. She continued to say that dreaded word no one wants to hear, cancer. The news hit the group hard, yet Martha kept her cheerful, hopeful, and faithful attitude about the whole subject. We prayed and watched over Martha, helping her here and there when she needed it for four months while she battled this disease. Another Thursday came, and her latest news was that she was going to need a bone marrow transplant, and it would require her to be in the hospital for a lengthy period of time and then be quarantined at home for over a month.
God uses people and situations everyday for His glory, the Holy Spirit came to me strong after this Thursday. I felt an almost motherly urge to make Martha’s quarantined time at home the best I could possibly make it. I thought of the usual- a meal, sending her flowers, a spa basket, DVDs of a TV series, a Christian book series I liked… but none of them really struck me as the right thing that God was nudging me to do for her. Then Martha made another post on her Facebook page about feeding the ducks in the pond behind her Ard Yard and about how she missed having the energy to be out planting during that time of year. That was the moment, that was the key to what God was telling me to do for Martha… but the next step was that He wasn’t telling just me to do it… He wanted it to be a group effort.
I messaged our Bible study leader and asked if I could send an email to the group, but strategically leave Martha out. I went through Martha’s Facebook page and took screenshots of the damage the tornados had done, I knew we wouldn’t have the time or materials to do full landscaping, but I noticed Martha had a vast collection of pots and containers. I found pictures of her front porch pots, and all the containers scattered around her garden, I noted what looked to be sun vs shade positions and added the information to the email. I asked the ladies of our Thursday morning Bible study if they would donate money to buy plants and flowers for a surprise project for Martha. I also asked if anyone, who was willing to get their hands dirty, would come with me. We were going to bring the container gardens in her Ard Yard back to life as a surprise while she was in the hospital getting treatments! That way, when she came home, she would have a beautiful backyard again to relax and recover in. It was the perfect plan and better yet, the women loved it and donated their money and time generously.
Then God stepped in again, this time He gave me another strong message that it wasn’t supposed to be a surprise, but rather a gathering. I could tell He wanted us to do this with Martha before she left for the hospital. So once again, who am I to step in the way of God’s plan? I called Martha that day, knowing I didn't have much time because this was the week before she left, and told her I had a backyard full of beautiful flowers waiting to show up at her home. I told her to stay home that Thursday and instead of coming to Bible study, Bible study was going to come to her! She couldn’t believe it and was so thrilled to hear of our plan.
We arrived at her house on a stunning Thursday morning in April. Her yard was even more spectacular in person than her pictures. One look at her gardens and you could tell Martha was a woman who enjoyed the peace flowers brought to her backyard. All of us ladies laughed and sweated and got our hands dirty, we talked about plants and God, I taught the women about the Thriller-Filler-Spiller method to container gardening, another woman taught us about how she learned F.R.O.G. could be remembered as “Fully Rely On God”, we shared stories and watched Martha feed her ducks, and we brought the Ard Yard back to life one container garden at a time. As we were all leaving, the women couldn’t stop talking about how they enjoyed spending time planting together, it was something everyone needed. But Martha was the most appreciative. She just kept smiling, talking about how this was the icing on the cake to what had been such a perfect week. She had spent time with her family, she had seen her grandson play soccer, eaten great meals with friends, she had a small golf outing with her husband planned for the next day, and then she got to spend that day with her bible study ladies in the garden. She never forgot to mention how God was a part of everything in her life, and she praised Him heavily that day. We all gave our hugs, said our goodbyes, and drove back home.
Martha went to the hospital and updated us through Facebook for a few days on how her treatments were going and how she was feeling. The updates become more scarce, until her husband started to continue them. For reasons we may never truly know or understand, things were not going as everyone had hoped. After 37 days, the news we all had been dreading came as we learned that Martha had passed away.
Grief comes differently for a group of Christian women, we want to celebrate the life Martha had and feel comfort in knowing that she was a woman who radiated Jesus to anyone she met… but it doesn’t take away the pain of loss, the longing to see that person again, and the just plain sadness you feel. My eyes were hot with tears after reading the news, and I walked outside to calm down and breathe some fresh air, I cut a small bouquet of flowers from my own garden that day and placed it in the windowsill above my kitchen sink, in memory of Martha.
A week or so later, another woman in my Bible study approached me and said she could not stop thinking about what we did in Martha’s yard. She explained how her mom was always the one to do planting with her and, since her mom had moved to assisted living, that she didn’t have the time to shop, the knowledge to not get overwhelmed by all the pretties in the garden section, or the energy to get down and dirty replanting all of the containers herself. She asked me if I would come and do what we did at Martha’s yard at her home. I told her I would love to come over and asked if I could bring my mom along. My mom had helped me shop for Martha’s yard and she was excited to do it again too. The Holy Spirit may have prompted me to have the idea of planting for Martha, but the first person I called to see if I should/could really do it, was my mom. From there, my mom helped me daily as we shopped for flowers to collect for Martha’s home. She has years of plant knowledge that I can only hope to one day also share.
My friend gave us a budget and said, “Do whatever you’d like, I trust you!”. So we got to work taking pictures and measurements of her containers, shopping at different stores to get good deals with the precious money she had given us, and the day came that we arrived at her home with our car trunks full of flowers ready to spend a few hours getting our hands dirty. There we were, garden fairies as she called us, magically doing all the work so that she could sit back and enjoy the peace of her backyard patio again. She truly loved and adored our container arrangements and looked at us and said, “Ya’ll should do this as a business!”
My mom and I looked at each other smiling, and the rest, as they say, is a story for another day.
- Written by: Hallie Forgerson
In Loving Memory of Martha Ard
I was attending my first Bible study here in Georgia after a couple years of trying to find a church and longing for connection with not only just other women in general, but Godly women.
I took the step and signed up to be in a Thursday morning Bible study at the church we were attending. I walked into a room with colorful window treatments, bible verses and silly pictures on the whiteboard, and four large tables with several black chairs in the middle of the room. I sat down with the other women, some who were chatting like old friends and some who seemed new, like me. We went around the room introducing ourselves, the women ranged in age from 30-90 and were all in different stages of life. I listened carefully to find common interests with the younger women because I was longing for new friends. But it was the words of an older woman that caught my attention the most when she said “gardening”. I looked at her more intently and noticed she had perfect silver hair and the sweetest bangs that framed her face so beautifully. She had bright pink cheeks and a soft voice, one that made you know she had never said anything cross to anyone. She was wearing a flowered blouse in a light blue color that complimented her eyes and hair. She gave off the look and energy of a women wo could easily play Mrs. Claus in a smalltown Christmas parade. Her name was Martha, she proudly explained she was named after Martha from the Bible.
Every Thursday, our leader started the group time with an “ice breaker” question. I perked up every time it was Martha’s turn to speak because I knew she was undoubtedly going to mention something about flowers, plants, or gardening. Martha and her husband lived in a neighborhood that backed up to a golf course, their yard happened to share the water hazard of the golf course, and her yard was famous! I learned she had a special Facebook following of people looking for updates about her “Ard Yard” as they lovingly referred to it. Martha posted pictures of mature fruit trees, flowering bushes, and several beautiful individual flowers in their yard. She made you want to jump right into the pictures and walk around surrounded by the beauty they had created in their own personal oasis. But, her yard had changed recently. Tornados had gone through our little town in the Spring of 2022, and I learned that the Ard Yard was a mess. Large trees had fallen and taken out precious bushes and smaller trees that Martha and her husband had planted together for different occasions, trees even hit their home and windows causing damage, and plants that used to be in full shade were now baking in the hot Georgia sun. They had been focusing their efforts on rebuilding sections of their home that were damaged by the storm rather than the Ard Yard itself. It was taking a tole on Martha, but that wasn’t the only reason for her fatigue.
As we all grew in friendship and our prayer requests became more personal, Martha continued to talk about her love for plants and gardening, but started to throw in a few words about upcoming doctors appointments, waiting for test results, and prayers to figure out what was going on.
We walked into group one day and Martha had an announcement about her prayer requests. She continued to say that dreaded word no one wants to hear, cancer. The news hit the group hard, yet Martha kept her cheerful, hopeful, and faithful attitude about the whole subject. We prayed and watched over Martha, helping her here and there when she needed it for four months while she battled this disease. Another Thursday came, and her latest news was that she was going to need a bone marrow transplant, and it would require her to be in the hospital for a lengthy period of time and then be quarantined at home for over a month.
God uses people and situations everyday for His glory, the Holy Spirit came to me strong after this Thursday. I felt an almost motherly urge to make Martha’s quarantined time at home the best I could possibly make it. I thought of the usual- a meal, sending her flowers, a spa basket, DVDs of a TV series, a Christian book series I liked… but none of them really struck me as the right thing that God was nudging me to do for her. Then Martha made another post on her Facebook page about feeding the ducks in the pond behind her Ard Yard and about how she missed having the energy to be out planting during that time of year. That was the moment, that was the key to what God was telling me to do for Martha… but the next step was that He wasn’t telling just me to do it… He wanted it to be a group effort.
I messaged our Bible study leader and asked if I could send an email to the group, but strategically leave Martha out. I went through Martha’s Facebook page and took screenshots of the damage the tornados had done, I knew we wouldn’t have the time or materials to do full landscaping, but I noticed Martha had a vast collection of pots and containers. I found pictures of her front porch pots, and all the containers scattered around her garden, I noted what looked to be sun vs shade positions and added the information to the email. I asked the ladies of our Thursday morning Bible study if they would donate money to buy plants and flowers for a surprise project for Martha. I also asked if anyone, who was willing to get their hands dirty, would come with me. We were going to bring the container gardens in her Ard Yard back to life as a surprise while she was in the hospital getting treatments! That way, when she came home, she would have a beautiful backyard again to relax and recover in. It was the perfect plan and better yet, the women loved it and donated their money and time generously.
Then God stepped in again, this time He gave me another strong message that it wasn’t supposed to be a surprise, but rather a gathering. I could tell He wanted us to do this with Martha before she left for the hospital. So once again, who am I to step in the way of God’s plan? I called Martha that day, knowing I didn't have much time because this was the week before she left, and told her I had a backyard full of beautiful flowers waiting to show up at her home. I told her to stay home that Thursday and instead of coming to Bible study, Bible study was going to come to her! She couldn’t believe it and was so thrilled to hear of our plan.
We arrived at her house on a stunning Thursday morning in April. Her yard was even more spectacular in person than her pictures. One look at her gardens and you could tell Martha was a woman who enjoyed the peace flowers brought to her backyard. All of us ladies laughed and sweated and got our hands dirty, we talked about plants and God, I taught the women about the Thriller-Filler-Spiller method to container gardening, another woman taught us about how she learned F.R.O.G. could be remembered as “Fully Rely On God”, we shared stories and watched Martha feed her ducks, and we brought the Ard Yard back to life one container garden at a time. As we were all leaving, the women couldn’t stop talking about how they enjoyed spending time planting together, it was something everyone needed. But Martha was the most appreciative. She just kept smiling, talking about how this was the icing on the cake to what had been such a perfect week. She had spent time with her family, she had seen her grandson play soccer, eaten great meals with friends, she had a small golf outing with her husband planned for the next day, and then she got to spend that day with her bible study ladies in the garden. She never forgot to mention how God was a part of everything in her life, and she praised Him heavily that day. We all gave our hugs, said our goodbyes, and drove back home.
Martha went to the hospital and updated us through Facebook for a few days on how her treatments were going and how she was feeling. The updates become more scarce, until her husband started to continue them. For reasons we may never truly know or understand, things were not going as everyone had hoped. After 37 days, the news we all had been dreading came as we learned that Martha had passed away.
Grief comes differently for a group of Christian women, we want to celebrate the life Martha had and feel comfort in knowing that she was a woman who radiated Jesus to anyone she met… but it doesn’t take away the pain of loss, the longing to see that person again, and the just plain sadness you feel. My eyes were hot with tears after reading the news, and I walked outside to calm down and breathe some fresh air, I cut a small bouquet of flowers from my own garden that day and placed it in the windowsill above my kitchen sink, in memory of Martha.
A week or so later, another woman in my Bible study approached me and said she could not stop thinking about what we did in Martha’s yard. She explained how her mom was always the one to do planting with her and, since her mom had moved to assisted living, that she didn’t have the time to shop, the knowledge to not get overwhelmed by all the pretties in the garden section, or the energy to get down and dirty replanting all of the containers herself. She asked me if I would come and do what we did at Martha’s yard at her home. I told her I would love to come over and asked if I could bring my mom along. My mom had helped me shop for Martha’s yard and she was excited to do it again too. The Holy Spirit may have prompted me to have the idea of planting for Martha, but the first person I called to see if I should/could really do it, was my mom. From there, my mom helped me daily as we shopped for flowers to collect for Martha’s home. She has years of plant knowledge that I can only hope to one day also share.
My friend gave us a budget and said, “Do whatever you’d like, I trust you!”. So we got to work taking pictures and measurements of her containers, shopping at different stores to get good deals with the precious money she had given us, and the day came that we arrived at her home with our car trunks full of flowers ready to spend a few hours getting our hands dirty. There we were, garden fairies as she called us, magically doing all the work so that she could sit back and enjoy the peace of her backyard patio again. She truly loved and adored our container arrangements and looked at us and said, “Ya’ll should do this as a business!”
My mom and I looked at each other smiling, and the rest, as they say, is a story for another day.
- Written by: Hallie Forgerson
In Loving Memory of Martha Ard
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The ladies who made it possible |
Martha feeding her ducks
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Our first planting day! |