A Garden Of Love

The moving true story of a 13 year old boy living in the rural Midwest in the 1960s who learned that life was about more than fun when his favorite aunt suffers from a terminal illness and teaches him how to live life to the fullest with dignity and hope. Billy Keller was a typical boy, full of ornery but harmless trouble. He convinces his mother that their house, custom built and sporting a K made of sandstone in the chimney, was crooked, but his father was not fooled for a moment. Even a trip to the community pool was more than he could pass up, and he joined a group of boys with a plan to flush a firecracker down the toilet, urban legend stating that ruptured pipes would be the result. The test didn’t work, instead the powerful ordinance exploding in the bowl and causing smoke and water damage. Always the fortunate one, Billy escapes capture. The summer also was a time to try smoking and chewing tobacco, a country boy’s escape from a boring summer. A flat tire on a bike ride caused his brother and his friend to leave him behind, and Billy got lost walking home. A dog chased him onto the roof of a house, and running back and forth along the edge of the roof, the dog following along on the ground snarling and barking, Billy wore him out and eventually escaped. He at long last got a ride home, problem solved. His only real task that summer was to clear the weeds from his Aunt Edie’s garden with the help of his brother Rick. The lazy summer was disturbed by the near drowning of a neighbor girl with Billy becoming a reluctant hero and saving her, and his father entering a burning house to save a family that would have perished without his intervention. But the real crisis was discovering his beloved Aunt Edie had cancer. She lived with them that summer and Billy and his Aunt Edie went beyond their normal bond, learning about life.