I’m low on sleep and was having trouble coming up with something to write about, so I gave myself a challenge. Find an old photo with Mario and put 1000 words to it. So here we go.

Oddly, the photo I’ve selected was taken right around this time (June) exactly 6 years ago.

Here’s the backstory …

The little house in the background is our rental house, which a friend still rents from me. That is whole other story. Basically, we had decided to get out of any kind of stock investments because we were not making that much and paying high taxes to boot. So real estate investment seemed to be a safer bet. Our friend needed a place to rent so things were starting to line up. One day, our friend spotted the house on a real estate listing for an insane deal. The short story is that it literally took us about a full year to make the purchase because it was a foreclosure, the realtor was incompetent at best, and there were a ton of hoops we had to jump through on seemingly every front. At a certain point, we decided we’re “all in” and just pushed through it.

The house came with really crappy front yard that was more weeds and field grass than anything else, so we wanted to do something more along the lines of an English garden.

At the time, Mario’s dad was always down to do any kind of manual labor. So he offered to help dig out the old grass. I’d borrowed my dad’s truck, which was a big Dodge Diesel number. I remember that morning I ran into the fence post and dented the fender (the thing was a beast to drive). Mario’s dad met us there in his car and got straight to work.

Mario’s health had already been on the decline for several years but was getting much worse. All of us were surprised when he offered to shovel stuff into the back of the truck.

I was already feeling pretty grim about his health, but I’m the eternal optimist too. I thought maybe there was still time for things to turn around some. Well, I’m writing here now so we all know how that ended! But none of us knew at the time that in just over 7 months he would take his last breath.

It wasn’t just the effort aspect that shocked us all though. It was also the fact that Mario absolutely hated manual labor of any sort. He’d always avoid yard work unless I specifically requested his assistance, then he would give it maybe 30% effort.

So there he was, shoveling for what would be a good couple hours at least. Yes, he would take breaks, but it was impressive because if you think about it, the dude was months away from death’s literal doorstep. I can only imagine how physically awful he felt.

Anyway, all of this was the first step in the yard transformation. Once all of the weeds and grass were loaded into the back of the truck, we were all pretty tired. I can’t honestly remember if I laid all the industrial weed fabric down that day or if I came back to do it. I might have actually come back.

We were going to go to the dump with the load in the back of the truck, but my dad had mentioned how he needed some filler in some holes in his field. So we drove over there next to unload.

Of course I also had to explain the dent in the fender, which my dad was of course not pleased about (he loved that truck).

Mario somehow found another gear, as they say, to help with shoveling dirt and clumps of grass and weeds into the holes in my parent’s field. Hell, after all that I was wiped out, so he must have been wiped out x 10.

I think when we got back home, he basically just laid on the couch drinking wine and watching tv.

This was officially the last hurrah when it came to manual labor as Mario would never do manual labor again in his life. He would probably get a chuckle out of that statement and respond with something like, “thank god!”. It’s funny because I honestly don’t mind a limited amount of manual labor. Things like yard work, moving heavy things and tasks like that are oddly appealing to me. There is a clear sense of accomplishment for one. Whatever you were working on can easily be seen. Another thing is it’s one of the few times where my mind can go on auto-pilot. I’m not ruminating on a thought or thinking about any problems I need to solve. And lastly, I enjoy physically challenging activity like that (probably why I actually ended up liking going to the gym as well). Mario was the exact opposite in that he’d do anything to avoid something that took too much physical effort.

Looking back on it, I’m also glad that Mario’s last act of manual labor was with his dad. It had probably been at least 20 years since they both worked together like that (his dad used to have a boat cleaning business on the side and Mario worked for him).

Even without the photo, I’ll always remember that bit of labor because every time I see the yard at the rental, I remember that day. He had a small part to play, but it was a lasting one at least.

I also didn’t know it at the time, but the soil at the rental house turned out to be very good for growing just about anything (unlike the wretched clay at my house). It makes sense because it’s actually not that far from the main river that runs through town, so a more rich soil in general.

We made some questionable choices in what we planted (mostly just 2 choices that I would definitely not have done in hindsight: planting mint and planting St. John’s Wort – both try to take over everything). But for the most part, things really took off and created a much more interesting front yard.