Omar's Artichoke

What possible good can come from a 16-inch square of dry dirt in a big grey city? It’s just concrete dust and city dirt surrounded by sidewalk.

What happened next when Grampa gave a rumpled bag with a wilted spiky plant to Omar took the five year old’s life in a new direction, sparking a new interest, a daily conversation. That 16-inch square garden became the center of his and his grampa’s life.

That summer they spent watching over the grey-green spiked artichoke plant in its impossibly improbable garden surrounded by sidewalk.

Who knew that almost magical changes could happen to that scrap of dirt and stringy plant with just a bit of help from a little boy and an elderly man.

Joan Jackson has loved writing since she was a small child, so very long ago. When she had her own two little boys, their love of her stories spurred her writing of children’s stories into a passion. They would sit be her side asking for stories about such things as bunnies in jewel-lined caves. What a pleasure to create word pictures in their small minds.When the world recently quieted and people stayed in their own homes for long stretches of time, Joan’s story writing imagination took flight more than in recent years. She derives great pleasure in writing stories.