28. Beauty for Ashes
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[You] provide for those who grieve in Zion
...a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
Isaiah 61:3M
Yfriend Candy was raised in the old section of Mobile, Al-
abama, with three sisters and a delightful mother named
Janet Bartee. Janet’s quaint, antique-furnished cottage was located di-
rectly across the street from the Old Springhill Cemetery, where the
dates on some of the graves go back more than 150 years. When
anyone died in Old Springhill you could count on loads of beautiful
flowers being delivered to the gravesite.
As children Candy and her sisters looked at a funeral as an invi-
tation to make bouquets for their mother. They would slip into the
cemetery at night and select the blooms of their choices. Then they
would take them home and create elegant floral arrangements. Janet
wanted the girls to understand that the flowers were not their own
personal property, but she just couldn’t seem to fuss at her daughters