It’s a steamy 30-degree summer day in Toronto but the little parkette next to Mom’s retirement home offers some shade and a breeze. Five seniors, two volunteers and the program director have gathered again for the weekly garden club. We’re beautifying a parkette that has now hosted the home’s first live music event — a violin and cello duet — since the start of the pandemic.

As the summer hits its peak, some perennials, like big-leafed green hosta and blooming white hydrangea, are revealing themselves in glorious displays.

Meanwhile, the seniors have been busy planting annuals to add seasonal contrast and fill in empty spaces. Mom finishes up planting impatiens and begonias between green-and-white euonymus shrubs circling the water fountain. I follow her, weeding out maple-seedling interlopers. She may not remember today’s garden activity but next time we are here I will point out her garden handiwork.

Resident Lee and volunteer Nadine plant some multi-coloured begonias in a tall planter next to a garden bench. Down the walkway, Mark, the recreation program director, is digging over some soil to fill in a bed of impatiens, with assistance from residents Elaine, Mary and Jane. The garden bed there is more than waist high and much easier for seniors to reach and work. Two other resident members of the weekly garden club — Chrystia and Merle — couldn’t attend today but have already helped the group create magic in this tiny garden.

In fact, this parkette is designed perfectly for seniors — its gentle switchback pathway affords lots of room for mobility devices. Those taking the path or the set of stairs now run a gauntlet of greenery and bold blooms.

The parkette is dedicated to Canadian composer Ernest Seitz, who once lived in the Bradgate Arms Hotel in this St. Clair West neighbourhood, long before the hotel became a retirement home. “Sunrise Park” is named after his hopeful and famous song from a hundred years ago: “The World is Waiting for the Sunrise.”

Elaine had showed up for this week’s session about 20 minutes early, so we chatted on a bench next to the fountain. I learned that her career was in social work with Children’s Aid in the Toronto area. She recalled the challenging circumstances of her young clients. Over the years, she helped so many of them navigate difficult early years.

Elaine’s sweetest story was about one of those young clients, a boy whom she worried about and cared about like many others — the boy who became her adopted son. These days, he is her “essential visitor” — driving down into the city to see his mom during the pandemic.

Because retirement homes were at high risk for covid particularly in the early days of the pandemic, each resident was allowed a maximum of two essential visitors under provincial regulations. Now that vaccination rates have risen and cases have fallen, retirement homes have been allowed to slowly loosen precautions. For example, small group programming resumed, and general visitors are now allowed with precautions.

Today’s garden session winds down. Mark has brought some bottled water to help us beat the heat.

The group takes a break in the shade after another afternoon of creativity — and garden revelations.