Even though I had lived my whole life on this island, I knew there was life beyond the Vatican. I’d read a little about Tibetan Buddhism and what it meant to be Hindu. And I knew quite a bit about Judaism because Charleston had one of the oldest Reformed temples in the country. Needless to say, because the Holy City’s founding fathers’ principles were grounded in the belief that all people should worship in whatever manner they pleased, we had an unusually wide variety of places to praise the Almighty. I wondered about how Archie prayed. To be honest, that was between him and his Maker. None of my beeswax, so to speak. On a very odd note, I’d never seen him take the boys to church on Sunday. Maybe at some point I’d gently suggest that the boys were welcome to come with me. That would require a high level of diplomacy, because people got all weird when it came to talking about religion in general, even people with Ph.D.s from Harvard Divinity School. I just really thought children needed to believe in something greater than themselves. Everyone did. If they could manage it, that is.

I took a leisurely stroll through my garden, making a mental list of chores to be done, and, of course, I talked to my bees. They were better company than most humans I knew.

“Good morning, ladies! Guess what I did last night? I made dinner for our neighbors and they loved it! What do you think about that? I made chicken and mashed potatoes and . . .” I went on describing the meal to them and the conversation with my sister. “And she says Charlie wants to take her to Atlantic City. Wouldn’t it be fun to play slot machines and see some celebrities and entertainers? Anyway, she thinks Archie is way out of my league. Do you think she’s right? I think she’s an a-hole. She and Momma are two rotten peas in a rotten pod.”

The girls were buzzing all around in the flowers collecting pollen and nectar and I was gently moving among them, pulling some of the weeds that would strangle my flowers if I ignored them. Somewhere over the course of the winter I had decided to get more serious about keeping my garden in flowers all year. If it had color? It counted, especially if it was purple. Honey bees loved purple flowers. I’d plant some things like ornamental grasses that had pink plumes or variegated leaves that changed color with the seasons. And I’d beef up the herb garden because honey bees loved basil, lavender, cilantro, rosemary, and thyme.