Dale Anne Fitzgerald

Vanessa's Garden Dale Anne Fitzgerald

The clearing in the forest of sycamore, cedar, oak, and pine trees was surrounded by a musical breeze and colors of God's paintbrush that beautiful autumn day in 1963. Chipmunks played as squirrels gathered acorns preparing for the winter season to come. The smell of chimney smoke from the town about a half mile up the path gave assurance of warmth and memory.

Vanessa and her family lived in the small rural town that she knew all her life. The thirteen-and-a-half-year-old brown-haired girl discovered the clearing in the woods on a walk she took one day after school. Her imagination would take over as she sat on a huge rock in the middle of the peaceful clearing. Vanessa thought of herself as a princess sitting on the throne of her secret kingdom as she embraced the solace. She knew her parents and brother would discover the secret one day but never realized the heavenly legacy that the clearing held.

Vanessa knew that she changed that day and in the days to come through family, friends, picnics, school dances, destiny, and the lessons of faith. The clearing in the woods was not just a place of solace, secrets, and smiles; it truly became Vanessa's Garden.