Volunteers play bigger role in maintaining older cemeteries

AP-PA--Exchange,Advisory, PA

YORK, Pa. (AP) — Gumercindo Minaya thinks flowers are a waste of time — you can't eat them. So when he turned his daughter's yard into a massive garden, he didn't plant marigolds or roses. He planted corn. Rows of the tall stalks now fill the backyard of her corner lot on Madison Avenue in York. But, when he was planting, he didn't stop in the backyard. "When I saw he planted outside of the fence it was already too late," Dolores Minaya said, chuckling. Corn stalks line both sides of the sidewalk next to the house and continue to the front. Minaya's yard is like a chunk of farm land picked up and plopped into the city. The impact of the corn spreads beyond her yard. Dolores says kids who've never seen corn on the stalk will ask about it, and then want to come back for some once it's ready to eat. People walking by take pictures, and one man even stopped to see if Gumercindo could help him plant at his own house. Planting crops was the first thing kids learned to do in the countryside of the Dominican Republic where Gumercindo, 84, grew up. When he was 16, he moved to a city to do construction work, and his space to plant food shrank. But Dolores always remembers corn at her childhood home. "Any little space that was empty he'd always plant something," she said. Gumercindo and Dolores sat in the shade in one of the few spots not taken up by corn in Dolores' backyard as her youngest son Nelvin, 6, awaited his chance to show off the ripening tomatoes he helped plant. Dolores translated for her father, who doesn't speak English. Dolores moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic in 1989. Her father joined much of their family — her mother, four brothers and five sisters, already sharing a cramped, two-bedroom apartment — in 1994. They came for a better life, a better chance to provide for their families, for their kids. It was those kids, Nelvin and two of his cousins, who helped Gumercindo plant the corn. It was a chance for him to teach them about nurturing and life. "You see what happens with a little seed," Dolores said, "but it all depends on how you take care of it." (asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk) Where Gumercindo grew up, the health of a crop was an indicator of the health of the planter. Dolores translated: "When you plant, you're planting life," he said. "As it's growing you see your health is good." Tending to the plants — weeding, watering, and fighting off the squirrels and groundhogs — is like therapy for her father, Dolores said. He's always been someone who worked outside, worked with his hands, and the work of nurturing the corn keeps him active and happy. With the growth of his corn, he feels his own health improving. In May, his doctor told him there was no sign of the cancer that was discovered in his colon in 2009. "The corn is bringing hope," Dolores said. ___ Online: http://bit.ly/2apGqKf ___ Information from: York Daily Record, http://www.ydr.com

Man who planted corn in York City: I'm 'planting life'