Inner City Gardens

Walking through these gardens felt like visiting an old friend, he didn't know half the names of the flowers planted here but they were pretty none the less, his mother planted this garden as an inner city project of beautification. It turned into a lot more than that, it gave a place of safety to the children of the city, and it gave them a place that young girls ran to when they were in trouble, or just needed an escape. Now this beautiful place was in danger of being shut down since his mothers passing and there wasn't much he could do about it, since he lived in a new city and had a life of his own. As he was walking he saw a young woman in her early twenties sitting near a pretty kind of white flower she was just looking at it, allowing her mind to drift from the trouble of her day to day life. As he passed her she looked and saw who it was, "You're son aren't you,?" the man looked at her smiled, "Yeah, I'm Charlie my mother planted these gardens." The young woman was extended her hand, "I'm Julie, finally I got to meet you." Charlie shook her hand, "That's a very pretty flower isn't it," He didn't now what else to say but he was always interested in meeting the people from these neighborhoods. Julie replied, "Sit down please, I would like to talk to you." Charlie sat next to her on the bench and began talking, "Have you always lived in this neighborhood?" Julie laughed, "Well you don't move to the inner city your born here, I want to talk to you about this place is there anyway that it can be saved? Charlie knew she was going to ask that so the honest answer is the only one he could give, "Well with Mom gone and her being the only volunteer that this place had and Mr. Johnson retired now after working for years here, there really isn't any way to save it." Julie seemed crushed, "I can't believe it, I would run here all the time to get away from boyfriends, or drama of my drunken mother, I ran here when I got pregnant when I was sixteen, it's like loosing my life here." Charlie knew this kind of story would get to him sooner or later it was heart breaking, "You truly love this place don't you?" Julie answered, "See these white flower, well I planted them, the red roses over there, and the lilacs over there, I planted them all, I put a lot of work in here with my daughter, it was your mother that talked to me when I got pregnant and told me about being a mother at a young age, so yeah it's like loosing an confidant." Charlie only knew one way to save this place but he didn't want to put anyone on the spot, "There is a way this place can be saved, but I didn't want to ask anyone to do this that couldn't, I can talk for this place to the board of directors and tell them I have two new volunteers to care for the place. If you can spend at least thirty hours a week here, and find a gardener to work here for at least that many hours, also a receptionist the state would pay them, and a horticulture representative to visit every five months this place can be saved." Julie didn't think about it, "You have the first volunteer, my husband works in a lawn care place, and my sister who just turned eighteen needs a job so there the receptionist and I want to get her out of the hood, this falls into to place, the gardens of hope can be saved then if that's all it takes." Charlie was thinking to himself that this could work, "Well Julie it looks like this place will live on, how do you feel?" Julie nearly cried, "Like getting your mother back again." Charlie didn't say anything at first he just looked at the flower Julie was looking at when he walked up, it was pale and innocent looking, graceful within itself, then he looked up to Julie, "Let's name this section after my mother if you don't mind these flowers remind me of her." Julie looked up to her, "That was the first thing I was going to do when you made me the boss around here."