being ageless

I drove a little over 400 miles yesterday to meet her.

Maxine has a young sounding voice, white soft curling hair, clear eyes and a somewhat stooped body. The conversation floats quickly, the questions answered with gentleness and patience, always as if it was the first time she heard it asked of her.

She offered to send me the 16 plants but I wanted to see her and how she grows them. I wanted to experience how a woman lives agelessly.

Maxine's country property has been home for over forty years and it has become probably, the location of her last great passion of plant propagation. After a life of traveling the world for plants, teaching at the university level and raising a family she is devoting her curiosity to finding the best variety of the Haskap berry to grow in the United States.

The Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido, a northern island of Japan has always valued the berry for medicinal use. Dr. Maxine Thompson accidentally tasted one on a trip and that was the beginning of the long journey to carrying back seeds and the beginning of a new life project.

After walking her property and seeing how her test plots are laid out we sat at the kitchen table drinking haskap juice. She told me how researchers analysis plants and what records they keep. How long it would take to decide which plants get pulled out and which plants would make her proud. She smiled and told me a number that she thinks is a good one. She gave me one of those.

My 16 plants are numbers. After reading, THE PERFECT FRUIT, I know the history of Burbank and other plant propagators. I know that plants are only numbers until they produce something amazing. I know, that some how, these people have the ability to shake off disappointment quickly and let curiosity overcome them, anew.

Maybe it is that curiosity that makes Maxine ageless.