Filled with a lifetime of good things

“Jilly is always trying to heal me,” chuckles Stan affectionately, as the couple gathers pine needles from the trees at the trail head to the conservation area.

I encounter Stan and Jillian (whose names have been changed in my retelling) as I set out for the forest. They aren’t familiar with these woods but had stopped to collect ingredients for their various herbal teas and natural remedies. The pine might be added to a brew steeped with elderberries, orange peel, lemon, mint. They ask me how wide the paths are, wondering if there is room to pass others at a safe distance, “because, you know, we’re of a certain age so have to be extra careful,” they add.

Jillian the Mountain Girl, as she’s been known, grew up in British Columbia, daughter of a nurse who learned Western medicine but taught Nature’s medicine at home. She knows the anti-septic, anti-bacterial properties of various leaves. “They talk about a shortage of toilet paper, so I suppose this is good knowledge to have.” We all laugh. “I did learn the hard way as a five-year old what poison oak looks like, however…” More laughter.

As I turn to be on my way, they tell me their names and ask me mine. “Don’t be offended if Jilly forgets,” Stan footnotes. “She suffered a traumatic brain injury four years ago, and sometimes she has trouble remembering things.”

“They say the reason I healed so remarkably well is because my body was filled with a lifetime of good things,” recites Jillian modestly and pragmatically, but with a hint of pride. She turns to peer inside of Stan’s wooden box. “I suppose that’s enough for today,” she says surveying his pine needle collection approvingly.

And on we go, healing each other, and ourselves, as best we can.