BonnerSprings.com

To the editor:

Dr. Rae Sedgwick’s historic description of early-morning walks in Bonner Springs took her past a garden that my mother’s walk took her during her last four years of life. Mother’s gerontological specialist told her if she wanted to remain out of a nursing home, she would tend her garden and walk each day. I am following his advice. I do a morning bike ride and tend my mother’s garden. My bike rides take me past Dr. Rae’s same garden.

Mother and Bud Acock were kindred spirits. They were both saving the environment in 1937 and continued to do so until their deaths. I was afraid of Bud Acock’s bees in our birdbath. Mother taught me bees pollinated our native plants. In 1982, at age 96, she started walking around her block, which took her south to Pine, east past Bud Acock’s garden to the 100 block of Clark, where she stopped and sat on a friend’s steps to rest, then on to her friend, Mrs. Shirmer’s, where she visited. Then she walked past former Mayor Reece Kuhn’s parents’ Victorian home and former Mayor Philo Clark’s home. She walked in the street facing traffic on Pine, and again on the 300 block of Spring, and then south down Sheidley to her home. We enjoyed the walks. They paid great dividends for us. My mother did not have to go to a nursing home, because she gardened and walked. The walk is only four-tenths of a mile.

I want to encourage people to take this historical walk.

I sometimes need a cane when walking around the block. Harry Truman used one.

I am sure Bud Acock is proud of his daughter’s garden, and I believe Dr. and Mrs. “Doc” Elliot are proud of theirs.

Doris Elliot-Watson

Bonner Springs

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