The Gardner's Helper

I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1994. As my disease progressed, my ability to function decreased. My physical and mental abilities would fluctuate to the point I did not always know what to expect from myself.
I loved to garden, but it was becoming more and more difficult to enjoy because of the pain it caused. I was only able to be in the garden for about ten or fifteen minutes at a time.
One year my best friends thought that they had solved the problem. For my birthday they bought me a gift that was called the Gardner’s Helper. At first glance I couldn’t figure out what it was. It looked like a three wheeler for children that was midget size. The idea was for the gardener to sit on it and do the weeding without having to stoop over.
One nice cool morning I went out to the garden to weed the tomatoes. At this particular time they were very tall, about four or five feet tall as a matter of fact. The first thing that happened was that I almost fell just sitting down on it. It was only about eight inches tall. I finally got myself situated on it and proceeded to weed the garden. It was going very well. I was full of good thoughts and thought this horrible disease can’t keep me out of MY garden. Then I rolled this “helper” further down the row when I hit a clod of dirt. It flipped me over into the tomato patch with the helper quite a ways down the row from me. I yelled for help but of course, no one was around to hear me. I finally grabbed the wire tomato guard and pulled me up and the tomato plant down and made it upright. The gardener’s helper since then has had a permanent place in my tool shed.