Chasing Ghost Shadows With Spring Beauty
Wild Petal Posse Plants Dreams
On a sweltering July day in Catawissa, Missouri, a tiny flame flickered out. Four-year-old “Little Alice,” her lungs ravaged by tuberculosis, succumbed to a disease that had stolen two & a half precious years of her life. But Alice’s death sentence wasn’t the beginning of this heartbreaking story.
It was the bitter search to end the recurring nightmare dreams of promises ten-year-old Daisy was struggling to keep. Promises made under the shadow of Little Alice’s death, the other stolen life a mere 5 months later from the same diseases — her mother’s.
With a raspy cough that echoed in the stillness of the night, Daisy’s mother extracted four impossible promises. A hand, frail and clammy, gripped Daisy’s small one. “Take care of Phil and Norman,” she rasped, her voice a mere whisper. “Promise you’ll see they get an education. I can’t give them one anymore. Promise me when spring comes you’ll look for the Spring Beauty’s & smile at them as you remember I am always with you.”
Then, a flicker of a smile, tinged with the cruelty of a fading oil lamp light, “And promise, Daisy . . . Promise you won’t cry when I’m gone.” Daisy choked back a sob, the weight of a lifetime was growing on her small shoulders. The first tear, already a traitor, traced a warm path down her cheek. The promise to hold back the flood of tears was already broken.
The five harsh months afterwards had carved a heart-wrenching hole in Daisy’s soul since the January night that stole her mother. Tuberculosis, a predator lurking in the shadows, had her grappled with the weight farm chores. Her mother’s rasping cough echoing in her dreams a nightly grim-reaper reminder.
The three orphaned children’s refuge was Grama Ana Catherine, a woman weathered by 78 years of time & hardship. A local traditional healer & respected herbalist, her garden was a vibrant necessity of life. It held a desperate hope, not just for sustenance, but for solace.
Widowed a few years earlier, Ana Catherine’s garden was not only a necessity, it was also a matter of pride. No weeds would dare grow there, less they end up as fodder in her chicken yard. She kept enough chickens for her own use, plus surplus for earning egg money. She saw to it that there were always a couple of bantams that belonged to Daisy.
Ana Catherine’s 2nd main source of income was gathering leaves & roots to ship to drug firms in St. Louis. Mostly she shipped Skullcap and Jimson leaves. These plants were plentiful. May Apple roots were becoming scarce. Drug firms were desperate for what Ana Catherine could offer.
If it was leaf day they would start out as soon as the sun had dried the dew from leaves. Anna Catherine had her big sack & Daisy with a smaller one. The leaves were then spread out to dry on old sheets or blankets spread on the floor of the attic. The leaves had to be stirred frequently to dry evenly. Naturally, the leaves shrank as they dried and this made room for fresh ones to be spread.
She needed Daisy as much as Daisy & her brothers needed her. To keep Daisy busy, Grama Ana Catherine had recruited her to give Wah-Shon-Ga (an Osage boy who sometimes worked for her) lessons in reading & writing words in English. That was part of “I can take care of myself agreement” for Daisy to help with the expenses books & school supplies.
Daisy built her own little log chicken house on the bank where the skeleton had been found a long time ago, but of course Daisy didn’t know that. That fact alone set in motion the Dream Guessing Ceremony Wah-shon-ga knew had to come soon.
The nearby Iroquois relied on Dreamers like him for a unique medical diagnosis. These individuals would sleep with a patient’s clothing & tobacco, interpreting their dreams to reveal the cause of illness. Later, among the tribe members the Ghost Dance followed. It was performed by women, appealing to the “Ghost Spirit” — a restless spirit believed to linger after death & cause illness if unsatisfied. This practice, was said to prevent & cure illnesses by calming these lingering spirits.
Sleepless nights continued to be a battleground where Daisy wrestled with phantom ghosts — her mother’s fading smile as she died, the hollow promises she agreed to that were whispered on that deathbed.
Sleep, if it did come, brought no reprieve. That was only the chilling uncertainty of the children’s shared fate under the consumption’s cruel gaze. Here, in this world of dwindling resources & whispers of other family members having the same illness, even the cheerful cluck of Daisy’s bantam hens couldn’t quite drown out the fear that gnawed at her.
The Promise Of Spring Beauty
Each day was a tightrope walk between duty & despair, the weight of responsibility threatening to crush a spirit barely a decade old. Yet, in the quiet moments spent tutoring Wah-Shon-Ga, a flicker of defiance sparked.
Ever so observant, Wah-Shon-ga, saw Daisy’s growing weariness from lack of sleep and her sadness. Respectfully, he didn’t acknowledge that he knew from Ana Catherine, that she was having nightmares. An orphan himself, he deeply felt Daisy’s pain.
He alone remembered that the exact place where Daisy sheltered her Bantam hens was also rumored to be a place where he’d heard the Iroquois Ghost Dreams collide. Suddenly, it was clear to him what needed to be done.
Wah-Shon-Ga wasn’t exactly known for his respect for laundry hung out on the bushes. With the stealth of a sneaky weasel, he “borrowed” a pocket off Daisy’s least-missed apron (because who notices a runaway pocket)? Next, he traded his most prized possession, a slightly-damp rock collection, for some questionable-looking tobacco from fur trapper Jebidiah Juniper Juice (who probably grew it in his armpit).
The final step? Stuff the dubious tobacco Juniper juice pocket wad combo under his pillow. All he had to do was hope not get caught or that he wouldn’t faint from the stench.
Tomorrow, with unwavering confidence (& maybe a clothespin for his nose), Wah-Shon-Ga would unleash his “bad dreams cure” by going to visit the Iroquois Dreamers. He’d ask them to chase the Ghost Spirits away from his friend. She didn’t know she had unleashed a bad Ghost Spirit where she built her Bantam hen house. The skeleton Ghost Spirit would be appeased & leave.
All he wanted was to see a smile back on Daisy’s face, even if it meant enduring a lifetime of the stench of Jebidiah’s “special” Juniper Juice tobacco. Was he successful?
Well, all I know from this hand-me-down true story (as told to me by Daisy herself), is that while he was gone for a few days, Daisy awoke to her little Bantam hen house being surrounded by delicate flowers. She knew it was a message from her mother in the form of a posse of Spring Beauty plants fulfilling a promise.
With that proof, Daisy’s nightmares ceased. While nothing would ever take away her missing her mother & Little Alice, she did understand the the promise of hope, that comes with each spring’s beauty, is what helps us endure the unbearable. We only have to surround ourselves with hope & joyful beauty.
In The Know On Spring Beauty Plants
As A Food: This neat little wildflower plant called Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) showed up everywhere they went, which meant Native American tribes & early settlers all over ate it! The leaves were like tasty greens. The root was like a starchy potato battery that gave them energy. The corms (roots) grow in big bunches underground making it an easy way to find a yummy snack.
They could eat it raw for a quick snack, or cook it up into yummy cakes, make into flours, or dry it for later. They even stored fresh ones underground for winter, just like potatoes! Spring beauty is also a plant buffet! It can be a raw leaf salad, or cooked up with a sprinkle of salt & pepper for a yummy sauté wild wilted side dish.
As A Medicine: The greens & flowers were used as a poultice to treat a variety of ills. A poultice of Spring Beauty was applied to eyes to aid vision. A poultice of masticated leaves were put onto cuts and sores for healing.
Some used a tonic on their hair to make their hair glossy. Others used the plant as a urinary aid (prostate shrinker). For others, it was an eyewash. Lastly, infusions of the whole plant were used to treat sore throats, convulsions, & even as a contraception
“On the cusp of emerging, early blooming Spring Beauty, is a whisper of resilience against the cold of a harsh winter sometimes filled with grief. Its delicate white & lavender-deep purple striped petals, a promise once whispered on the Ghost Dream winds, to a girl missing her mother’s promise that life, like the Spring Beauty, will bloom again, offering sustenance and solace to those who wait.” — Jerilee Wei © 2024
