San Francisco

San Francisco

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Noni's Garden


From the time I was a little girl, I remember spending hours and hours in Noni's garden.  It was our favorite place to be.  We grew apples, plums and strawberries, and my Grandfather always had a wonderful vegetable garden where he grew carrots, lettuce, basil, tomatos and beets.  My job was to water the garden and help "harvest the crops".




When I moved back to my Grandmother's house to take care of her after she was diagnosed with severe Alzheimer's dementia, the garden was the place that my Grandmother and I would go each day.  She would sweep, and I would garden.  We spent many hours together each day.  This picture and the one above were taken just before the conservators took over.




Once the conservators took over and hired the unqualified, uncertified caretakers to care for Noni, the caregivers could not be bothered with the garden and did not care that it was my Grandmother's favorite place.  They would not allow her access to the garden, but they did allow the weeds to grow despite the fact that I literally begged them to hire someone to come in and cut them down.  I even offered to do it myself but they would not allow me to be with my Grandmother.  Below are pictures taken in the neglected garden last April.  I found a large dead rat in the backyard the day I took these pictures.

Weeds grew to well over 4 feet before the conservator finally hired someone to tend to the garden.  Shortly after that Noni had a stroke, was hospitalized and never returned to her home on 11th Avenue.  She is now in a GOD AWFUL nursing facility-Laurel Heights Convalescent Hospital.  The conservators and their attorneys refuse to allow her to go home. Instead they want to sell the house in order to pay for the outrageous, unwarranted fees and charges they have incurred in just 16 months:

$600,000! 

 Below are more pictures of garden after the conservators took over...