AlexSandra Lett "Lett's Set a Spell"

Lett’s Set a Spell: A Rare Friend ...
A Special Present

On my birthday, February 8, about 30 years ago, while I was a student at Carolina, I awoke one morning to the sound of a hoe chopping in my back yard. I wondered who was working outside at the crack of dawn. I peeped out my bedroom window to discover that Mary Enner Pendergraft, my 84-year-old neighbor, was digging holes and dropping seeds in the dirt near the chicken house. I opened the back door and yelled, “Mrs. Pendergraft, what are you doing?”

“I’m a-fixin’ your birthday present,” she commented, and explained that since I liked salads so much she was setting out some lettuce seeds. Why the early planting, I asked? “So you can have lots of lettuce in late Spring ... early Summer,” she said. “Besides, the moon is right.”

Mrs. Pendergraft looked up into the sky with a countenance of prayer and peace on her face, then said: “Spring is like a newborn babe; Summer is our youth; Fall is like our adult years, and Winter is old age.”

“Mrs. P” was a no-nonsense type of person who had resided alone for many years. I had come to live next door to her through divine guidance. One day I was riding around in the country near Chapel Hill, on Old Lystra Road, looking for a space to park my mobile home. While turning around, I noticed a big white two-story farmhouse similar to my Grandpa’s situated back off the road. I ventured forward on the driveway and knocked on the door. An elderly lady with white hair came out on the sun porch and welcomed me inside. She smiled and said, “I’ve been waiting for you; I’ve been praying for God to send me the right person to live next door and here you are.”

Thus began a rare friendship between kindred spirits who relished the bounty of homegrown vegetables and fruits. Mrs. P—called “Mammy” by kinfolks—became a grandmother and shared her fresh produce and culinary delights with me. She didn’t drive so I took her to the beauty shop, the bank, and grocery store. I was a night owl, so sometimes when Mrs. P had just finished a quilt, she’d knock on my door about midnight and show off her multicolored creation like a proud peacock. I’d tell her about the term paper I was writing, the book I was reading, or give her a copy of an article I had just published. We were peas in a pod, and despite two generations apart, we were soul sisters.

Some may call it chance, but I know it was God who led me to drive into the yard of Mary Enner Pendergraft ,who planted seeds in my heart as well as my yard. Like the lettuce that grew so plentifully that I ate it for many months, Mrs. P’s love brought nourishment to my spirit that has lasted a lifetime. That birthday gift was the best one ever!