Published July 16, 2008 06:45 pm -
Stress-free zone
Family’s home keeps them working together, relaxing
By Travina Coleman
Phoenix Staff Writer
Deanna Moore said being a nurse can be stressful, so she has found her own way to keep her stress from growing. She picks the weeds out of it.
Moore said the rainbow of flowers covering her home on South 24th Street is a labor of love with involvement from her entire family.
Moore, her husband, Jackie, her two children, Aaron, 18, and Rebeka, 22, spend many evenings plucking the unruly plants and unwelcome weeds out of her three-tier garden below their porch.
“My husband is a contractor,” Moore said. “He built the garden when he built the porch. There used to be a rock front and he tore it down.”
Moore, a former ICU nurse for Muskogee Regional Medical Center, said she enjoys the time she spends in the gardens.
“The garden relieves my anxiety,” she said. “It’s something I get to do for myself.”
Moore said it isn’t easy to create or maintain her flower garden, but says it’s worth it.
“When you look at the humming birds that swoop in or the honey bees buzzing around, it makes me feel good to be a part of nature.”
Moore now works 12-hour shifts at the Cancer Treatment Center in Tulsa.
“I love my job,” she said. “I am very happy at the cancer center.”
Her son, Aaron, agrees.
“She’s a lot happier,” he said.
And when Aaron isn’t working as a teller at IBC Bank, he is bending over pulling out weeds out of the garden.
“It’s like they’re trained,” Moore said of her family. “They have all put a lot of work into it. They walk by and if they see something that doesn’t belong, the kids pull it out.”
Covered in a variety of colored pansies, gladiolas and lilies, Moore’s garden is home to several different plants.