Fauna, Flora, Fern, and Frank

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Suddenly, Frank and Fern were neighborhood celebrities and people, who had never even spoken to them before, said hello, wished them well, engaged them in conversation, left them baked goods, retrieved their newspaper for them, and helped him with Fern's wheelchair, whenever spotting Frank loading her in the car for her doctor's visit. Local stores gave them free merchandise, personal service, discounted their purchases, and gave them free home delivery. With everyone reaping the rewards of their gift of land, the neighborhood had been invigorated by Frank and Fern's unselfish generosity and the dividends were paying forward to all by enlivening everyone in a renewed awakening of community spirit and realistic hope that tomorrow would be a better day.

Wanting their neighborhood goodwill to continue, suddenly, people shopped locally, instead of getting in their cars and driving to the mall. As if awakened from a coma or a long winter of hibernation, there was a marked change over the community and the people who lived there. It was Frank and Fern, who had given everyone hope by breathing new life into a dying neighborhood. Maybe it was after seeing the disrepair of their homes on national television that sparked their motivation, but residents suddenly took more pride in their homes and even stopped to pick up trash off the sidewalks and the street. From fences, to siding, to roofs, to windows, there was a sudden reemergence of people painting, patching, repairing, and fixing what needed to be done and taking pride in where they lived.

Afraid to tread in their neighborhood before, a neighborhood that didn't want police interference and that didn't trust the police to give them fair treatment, even the police kept their distance for fear of inciting a riot and making matters worse. Where the police had turned a blind eye and limited their protection to entering this part of town before, only entering in force, when absolutely necessary to maintain the safety of the innocent public, there was a sudden rash of police presence, surveillance, raids, and even a cop walking the beat. Now the police worked in conjunction with community and religious leaders to clean up and arrest the human dirt that littered their streets.

Drug dealers were rounded up and prostitutes and their Johns were routinely targeted and arrested. Organizing a neighborhood watch program, the residents and authorities worked together by anonymously texting the police of illegal activities. After the neighbors and the police made it impossible for drug dealers and prostitutes to do their dirty business in their neighborhood, the criminals were either summarily arrested or they voluntarily moved elsewhere. Now, with the neighborhood rid of much of the criminal element and evil that preyed upon their children, families filled the streets.

Because of the neighborhood crime cleanup and the proposed public park, business owners, who talked about burglar alarms, security devices, and break-ins, were now talking about sponsoring Little League, Pop Warner Football, and basketball teams. Something they haven't had in more than thirty years, inner city sports teams had disappeared, when some of the longtime and more affluent residents, those who had helped sponsor them, abandoned their city for other, safer neighborhoods and the country. Now, instead of loitering on street corners and getting into trouble with the police, there were after school sports programs for the neighborhood youth. Soon to have a place to go to play organized sports, even the teenagers, the hardest group to reach, would rather play ball than steal cars, do drugs, and get into trouble.

Those who had abandoned the city for the country, the people who worked in the city and commuted to the country, between the higher cost of gas and the positive changes made public with the neighborhood cleanup, were returning. There was a resurgence of urban living over rural living. Those who had forsaken the convenience of city living for the safe, quiet peacefulness of the country were returning in droves to inject a higher level of urban living to a part of town that had already seen the worst of times and that were now changing for the better in readiness to experience the best of times.

Real estate prices, once depressed by abandon homes, burnt out shells, foreclosures, and closed businesses, were rebounding, when those young urban professionals moved back to the city to lend their moneyed hand by scooping up bargain properties and refurbishing them. Much in the way of a vacant lot suddenly growing lush grass with the advent of Spring, with a resurgence of new homeowners paying the city real estate taxes, the trickle down that Frank and Fern's land donation had started and was still continuing and had become a waterfall of positive changes. Now, with an influx of new residents and with shopkeepers wanting to take advantage of the new, influx of an affluent customer base, businesses were reclaiming those shops that had for rent signs taped to their windows and had long since abandoned the community.

As if chomping at the bit, waiting to help their old community, those who once lived in the neighborhood and made it out, and had become successful, were making donations in the name Frank and Fern and the city's new public park. Businessmen, lawyers, doctors, and professional athletes, who hailed from this neighborhood, were now motivated to help defray the cost of building a dugout, seating stands, and a scoreboard for the baseball field and adding floodlights to the park. Local businessmen and businesswomen offered to help buy sporting equipment for those inner city kids, who couldn't afford the cost of baseball gloves, basketballs, uniforms, hats, balls, and bats and the transportation needed to shuttle them to other parts of the city for them to participate in interleague play. It's a beautiful thing, when people come together for a unified purpose and for the good of others.

With budget cuts and tax shortfalls, the city had little extra money to pay their teachers, firefighters, and policemen. The last thing on their budgeted agenda was a public park they feared would be vandalized by hoodlums, as soon as it was constructed. They had been down that road before with other improvements they made in this community, only to have whatever they did destroyed by vandals overnight.

Yet, Frank and Fern handed the city the deed to their land for free with the only string attached being that the land be used to build a public park. This time was different. This time the residents offered their support to help preserve the park by watch dogging it to keep it out of the hands of vandals. It was a different community climate now with people helping one another and watching out for one another, instead of hiding in their homes not helping and not getting involved for fear of retaliation. It was this unselfish commitment to the community, the investment that Frank and Fern made to their neighbors and to their neighborhood, that motivated others to take more responsibility for where they lived.

Now, with the support of the entire community, there was a positive feeling that this proposed new park was more than just a park but a symbol of community spirit and a beacon of hope for change and the promise of a new beginning. Neighbors, who once stayed in their houses and locked their doors, were now out and about and willing to step up and take responsibility not only for their new park but also for the entire neighborhood. Those who lived here wanted to lend a helping hand in making sure that the park wasn't destroyed, by those who didn't understand what this park meant to a neighborhood that had been ignored by the city, disenfranchised from the rest of the state, and left on its own to wither and die.

Fortunately, detail oriented, in that regard from his career in working with drafting blueprints, long since retired, as a machinist, Frank personally supervised everything to perfection. He already had everything laid out on paper and the city engineers and inspectors approved his plan, not an easy feat to do. Placed on the fast track, the construction project was scheduled immediately, as soon as the spring thawed the ground.

Frank and Fern had a twelve acre parcel of land out behind their house that they bought sixty years ago, when they built their house. When they were first married and when they bought the land, figuring they'd build a house for their children, after they had them and after they were grown, married, and ready. Not knowing how many children they'd have three or four and only having had the one child, a son, they bought the twelve acres of land, at a time when there was nothing but empty lots with big distances between houses, unlike the congestion of the neighborhood today.

Land was cheap and not zoned back then, after the war, and Frank was given no stipulation to build on his land, so he didn't. Tempted to sell his land more than once to one developer or another, Frank hung onto it figuring he'd do something with it one day. It was different back then with families living together and close by, instead of being spread out all over the country and all over the world. A time before the personal computer, cell phones, and the Internet, the world, confined to one neighborhood, was a smaller place back then.

On the condition that the city turn the land into a public park, they could have it. The city agreed and had already cleared the land of chest high weeds, litter, and the garbage and the trash that residents had dumped there over the years. There was a collection of tires, mattresses, odd furniture, a refrigerator, television sets, even a rusty bathtub. Then, they brought in big Earth machines to dump more sand, gravel, and dirt to level the land, and unrolled sod to use for the playing fields.

Suddenly changing from a dream to a reality, a trash dump to a playing field, Frank's backyard was beginning to look more like a park than an eyesore. If you build it, they will come was never truer than what happened to this neighborhood and for this park. What a difference a year has made.

Frank and Fern had a vision and it soothed their souls to see their land finally used in the way it was intended and meant to have been used all this time. Every morning and afternoon, he and Fern would sit by the kitchen window, while having their breakfast and lunch to watch the transformation of his wasted backyard turned into a public park. They'd imagine all the kids who'd play in their park, the grandchildren they never had the opportunity to have.

With an excitement lost to old age and now temporarily reinvigorated in helping to transform their neighborhood, their park gave them the reason to open their eyes for one more day. They talked about the park in the morning and talked about the park late at night, just before retiring to bed. As much as it was to the community, this donation of land had been a blessing to Frank and Fern, a wonder drug, and an elixir that injected them with new life and a valid reason to continue living.

The city had already installed the floodlights and the chain link fence that surrounded the park. Then they installed the water fountains, the jungle gym, the swings, and the slide. Children were already using that part of the park, while waiting for the city to complete the rest of it. Finally, with the help of donations, there was a basketball court in one corner, a bocce court and a horseshoe pit in another, and a baseball field in middle, with a wide open expanse at the far end, the end that abutted Frank and Fern's house, deemed to be used as a combination soccer and football field. An outdoor soft track made of rubber from recycled tires ran around the entire outside perimeter of the parcel of land that kids could lap or neighbors could walk. From conception to completion, one year to the day, the plan was to complete the park by Earth Day, April 22nd, for a very public dedication attended by celebrities. A green park made from mostly recycled materials, even the governor, wanting to grab some free press and maybe, even, take some of the credit away for the creation of the park from Frank and Fern for himself, was rumored to attend.

Land that Frank and Fern could no longer afford to pay the taxes on, it was a never used plot of land anyway. It was land worth not much to them but, since the land was located in the inner city, it was a valuable parcel of land to others. More than a few times, they had been offered a decent amount of money to sell the land to a real estate developer, but rather than have a developer build another unsupervised slum on the land, rather than forfeiting his land to the city for eventual unpaid taxes, Frank and Fern took control of their destiny and donated the land, so long as it was protected and earmarked for public park use.

Once a nice neighborhood of families, more rural than urban back then, when Frank and Fern moved here more than sixty years ago, the land would have been worth so much more had it been located elsewhere in the inner city and not in this crime troubled ghetto, of all places. Nonetheless, Frank's desire to give something back to his neighbors, people he had shared this neighborhood with all of his married life to Fern, was something he was determined to do. What better plan than to make his trash filled backyard a public park, where he and Fern could watch the children play from their kitchen window? It was the perfect plan.

Every day, while Fern watched from her wheelchair pushed out to the back porch, Frank supervised the planting of the flowerbeds, the annuals and the perennials. Taking Fern's experienced opinion, as to which plant and flower to choose and for what reason to choose them, on her behalf, he personally picked out every flower, shrub, and bush that had been donated by the local nursery and/or paid for by public donations that were to be planted. Without her having to leave the house, giving her instructions from the back porch or the kitchen window, and taking her mind off the fatal health problems she had and the pain she suffered, he was happy that he could keep her directly and indirectly occupied and involved in the creation of the park in this way.

Consumed with excitement and a love for life, instead of beaten down by illness and pain, it was a Godsend to see her in the way that she was ten years ago. Better than any doctor's prescription, this public park was the best temporary medication he could have given her. Knowing that he was doing the right thing and doing right by her, seeing Fern like this, ignoring his everyday maladies to improve her spirits, gave Frank the motivation and energy that he needed to continue and succeed.

The bit of land where people first entered the park would have lots curb appeal with flowers and bushes everywhere, along with an eight foot high fountain tucked in the corner. Yet, the back entrance of the park was to be a lush garden like oasis and a private place where all the city's fauna could gather, the birds, the bees, the chipmunks, the raccoons, and the squirrels. Away from the sporting activities of the children, behind and nearer to the football and soccer field than to the baseball field, basketball court, bocce court, and jungle gym, and the part nearer to the back of Frank and Fern's house, they wanted a secluded area and a private place for themselves, where they could sit and enjoy the park without having to walk a long way to get to it and without having to be bothered by other people, if they didn't have the energy to socialize and just wanted to sit, instead.

With the hole already dug by his city's Public Works Department's backhoe, the piece d'resistance was on its way and soon to be delivered. A good sized oak tree delivered from the nursery on of all days, Earth Day, their very special day of days and the day of the dedication of the park. Once grown to maturity, this oak tree would grow to monstrous proportions and fill the rear of the park with new life. To be replanted again and deeply rooted in the ground, still growing with much more yet to grow and with a long time yet to mature, this tree would be here for a very long time giving shade, shelter, and daily testimony that Frank and Fern were here.

Planted so close to their kitchen window that they could nearly reach out and touch it, but not so close that it couldn't take root and continue to grow, they couldn't wait for the oak tree to be planted. As a symbol of the strength of their love, what better tribute to Earth Day than to plant a tree? Frank had used the money from their burial fund to help pay for the oak tree and some of the special lush, privacy landscaping they wanted the park to have. They wouldn't be needing that burial fund anymore, anyway. Besides, they may as well spend it on the park, since they had no one to leave what little money they had anyway.

Scheduled to come home from his 13 month tour of duty, caught in an ambush two weeks before being discharged, giving his life to save the lives of others in his charge, their only child, Frank Jr., had died a hero in the last days of Viet Nam, more than forty years ago. Frank lost interest in a lot of things when his son died that fateful day and he turned to the bottle to help him through his darkest hours. With both of them suffering something they never thought they'd experience, parents burying their only child, it was a horrific time for them and their marriage nearly failed because of it.

The city council voted and the mayor approved. In recognition of Frank and Fern's generosity and in honor to their son, a local hero, the city dedicated a park bench with a brass plaque, to be located in front of the replanted oak tree. Conveniently located, so that Frank and Fern could just step out their back door and have a place to sit, the honor brought tears of joy to their eyes to imagine how beautiful it will be, once the oak tree filled the empty space and they'd have a private place to sit there and enjoy the park. There was no better place on Earth than here to them, sitting on this dedicated park bench, beneath a soon to be delivered and replanted shady, oak tree in a neighborhood public park, that they donated the land for and helped to create with their vision and by the generosity to their beloved neighborhood.

Just before the oak tree was to be delivered and just before the dedication ceremonies was to take place, Frank told everyone that Fern's health had taken a turn for the worse, which it had, and that they were going away to see a specialist, which they weren't. Now that the park was completed, now that Fern felt there were no other reason for her to live, no doubt, she was dying. There wasn't anything more that anyone could do for her, other than to make her comfortable during her last days on Earth. The one thing that made her forget her pain and her misery, was watching the construction of the park that her beloved Frank had built for her and other than seeing the oak tree put in place, there was nothing more to see. The park was done. Their dream of leaving something everlasting and self-sustaining behind was finished.

They lied when they told their friends and neighbors that they were going out west for awhile to stay with relatives and soak up the warm, dry air until Fern's health improved. Begging off offers from friends and grateful neighbors to drive them to the airport, they lied when they told them that, because of the early hour of their flight, they had already arranged for transportation to the terminal. Then, when they returned, they'd finally see the completed park. They were sorry to miss the dedication, but Fern's health and medical care was more important than posturing for pictures for the newspaper and taking credit for something they needed to do, anyway. Typical of Frank, he was like that, not wanting or expecting anything in return for a good deed done.

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