Momandi's Way! The new American way!

(Editor's note: This was relayed to us by his son at a memorial dinner!)
This guy hardly spoke a word of English. But he always waved and would help you with planting seeds or handed you a cucumber. He had a hard time when they first came to America to escape the Soviets in Afganistan. Their neighbors in Arvada would get up every morning, get in their cars and go to work without giving anyone nearby a wave or a hello. They thought him a bit strange when he went around the neighborhood dropping off vegtables on the front steps. His son told him to ring the doorbell and offer them the produce, instead. He was an activist trying to change the way things were here. He didn't really find his place here till they moved to Denver and joined a community garden. Here, diversity is more welcome and his fellow gardeners came up to him out of curiosity and introduced themselves. Mr. Momandi brought with him the rest of his family, a son (my age) who spoke fluent English and his two teenage sons (who grew up in America) to the garden.

In a way I miss him, though it was hard to look at his humped spine and labored walking in his last year! But he is going to be memorialized in the garden and we will all be able to cool off at the chair under the large tree next to the family plot where he used to sit. I'm not too sad because the family didn't just garden for his sake, it seems they enjoyed it too!

Unlike them, I like the cucumbers as a pickle and rhubarb in a pie. I'll have to try thinly sliced rhubarb in a salad the way they like it, however.