Nelson

 We have a gardener who has worked for us for more than 20 years. He was a young man who was on the brink of marrying his sweetheart and very much in love when he came to us. He is a gentle soul and has a dreadful stutter, which of course makes him very shy. We bought him a suit and contributed as much as financially possible towards his wedding costs. I still have a photo he gave us, of the two of them taking their vows. Well, along came the babies and I was always the one to hear what the sex was first, as I had to contact the hospital whenever this wife went in to give birth. I'll never forget the pride and happiness when I told him about his first born son! He went on to father a daughter and another son. During the years he was in the TB hospital for 6 months and we managed to keep the family as comfortable as we could, during this period with no breadwinner. Now Nelson also has a very bad memory! Don't give him more than one task at a time because he will surely mix them up and once I found the tree he had to lightly prune back, totally stripped of branches as well as the roses lightly pruned! He thought the same task was for both the tree and roses! We have had so many disasters and many a time Nelson has been running down the street with my husband chasing him as dear old Nelson and created another disaster! He often does things without being asked to and I will look for a plant or pot plants and they have been 'relocated' and I cannot find them! I have to wait till next he is at work to ask what he did with them. Well, sadly his wife became very ill and died. He was so good whilst she was ill and he did all the work at home and still bathed and fed her till the end. He continued to run the household, look after the children and still get to work. Often I would find him with his hands clasped together on top of the rake handle, with his head resting on them, fast asleep, or behind a wall in the garden, curled up on the grass in the shade, blissfully sleeping! Very difficult time, but he brought up the children all on his own, not without a lot of stress and intervention by social welfare as to his capabilities to cope etc. Nelson is a devout Christian and has also been involved in his church and was a 'preacher'. He carries his Bible everywhere with him. Recently he came to work beaming and brimming with happiness. He had just been made a 'Reverend" and takes such delight in me calling him Reverend Nelson! A couple of years ago, he met a lady whom he thought he would marry. She did not get on with the children and I asked him to carefully consider this union. He broke it off in the end, but a few months later, the same lady was severely injured when a bus took her right off a pavement corner and broke both legs and a hip as well as an arm. She was in hospital for months and he started visiting her and praying with her. She eventually was released and went home to her mother for care. He faithfully visited her and eventually he came to me to say that he was going to marry her and take care of her and that she had changed towards his children and that he was very happy. He received my blessing and I was so happy for him. She now walks with a serious limp and still has on going treatment, but is managing to live a fairly normal life, but cannot walk distances and will not be able to work. Nelson and Gladys got married on the 30th August and I made him a card to go with his gift and baked a very simple cake for their celebrations. I'm sharing this with you as I want people to know that we don't always know what goes on in others lives, especially people who are in our lives and that if we take the time to find out a little about their background and home life, we all  would  find amazing people with equally amazing gifts and happiness to share with with us. We are blessed having Nelson in our lives, even though I do have to keep the peace between my husband and Nelson and watch that he does not do any more 'creative' gardening and re-organising.

Congratulations Nelson and may you be blessed with many happy years together!