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When Winola VanArtsdalen’s great-grandfather died in 1913, her grandparents
built a little house beside their farmhouse for her great-grandmother to live in.
This Mother-in-Law house allowed her great-grandmother to continue living
independently with the security of family nearby. The inset photograph on
the opposite page features Winola’s great-grandparents standing before their
Kansas farmhouse in the early 1900s.

PHOTOS BY JIM VANARTSDALEN
LEFT: INSET ARCHIVE PHOTO COURTESY OF WINOLA VANARTSDALEN

Years later, I gathered up seeds from my her garden when my grandfather was Poppy with bee stripes
great-grandmother’s columbines, which spreading dried manure over the garden
reliably bloomed alongside the shaded and fields each fall, in the years after her they have thrived in my Sun City yard
north side of the house. Now planted in passing they quit coming back. and bring me great joy. When I give some-
my own yard here in Sun City Texas, one seeds from these flowers - and I have
these keepsake perennials bring a little Suddenly, in spring of 1994, growing con- given away literally thousands to garden-
piece of my family back to me when they ditions must have been just right – the ing classes, friends and even those who
burst forth in bloom each spring. red poppies were back! I got a call from a have simply stopped to ask - I always tell
cousin of mine who lived near the farm, them sincerely, “My grandmother would
Viewing this beautiful trumpet-shaped and soon my husband and I were driving be so happy to share her seeds with you.”
flower as an adult, I recall seeing it as over five hundred miles just to see those I can only wish these poppies will bring to
a child, holding my grandmother’s hand poppies. them the beauty and thrill of springtime
while walking through her yard. In the for generations to come.
days of ancient Greece, columbines were Though no one can tell me for certain
supposed to indicate a passage to the where my grandmother first got these I hope you have sensed the joy these
other side. In later centuries, this sym- poppy seeds, an aunt who was born in plants bring me and that you will look
bolism was interpreted by Christians to 1910 told of someone coming to get seeds for opportunities to save your own “keep-
be representative of God’s presence on from grandmother when she was a young sake” plants to hold the memories of dear
earth. Indeed, when I look into the face girl. These poppies are taller than the loved ones, family and friends in your
of one of these lovely flowers, I feel the Georgetown poppies, a deeper red, and heart. Have a happy spring!
“hush” of a heavenly experience. bloom a little later. Their scientific clas-
sification is undetermined.
Though these columbines have renewed
themselves – and my memories – year The year my grandmother’s red poppies
after year, my grandmother’s beautiful returned, my cousin harvested their seeds
red poppies did not. Growing thick in at the end of the season and sent them to
me. Though not considered a native plant,

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