Thirty-five thousand four hundred and five – days that is, that Eleanor Burke has been alive. Today celebrates the 97th year of my great aunt Eleanor’s life on earth. My aunt has been the inspiration for my interest in gardening and a great help for me in my pursuit of photography. I must also credit her for my sense of compassion to help others due to her selfless dedication to my great grandmother Josephine during her long life and being in my sister and my lives for much of our first years. Auntie as she is known to family was in her late sixties when she first married. In the years prior she cared for her mother who also lived into her nineties. Her husband Kenneth Burke passed away some years ago, since then Auntie has lived with my mother who is caring for her as my great aunt has become quite frail. Knowing a relative whose life has been so long, someone who seems to have always been happy, who is maybe the sweetest person one may know throughout one’s own hopefully long life is a treasure. I wish to always know her.