A quiet and splendid solidarity created by a grandmother and her child!

The child leaves home before dawn.
Because my dad drops me off at my grandmother's house every morning before he goes to work.
It's early, but the roads are packed with busy cars.
The child looks at the scenery outside the car window.
The morning sun rising before I knew it and casting its light through the clouds, the mountain ridge that looked like a whale's belly in the darkness that still remained, the ripples on the morning sea...
Even if you run the same road every day, the scenery is new every day.
The child is holding a picture in his hand.
A painting of Baba's hut next to the highway and a painting of Baba and himself.

After a while, the child arrives at the cabin in the picture.
This is a cozy cabin that the child's Ziadek (Polish for grandfather) renovated from a chicken farm.
The child walks to the kitchen as if he is used to it.
There, Baba is preparing breakfast while waiting for the child.
I dance between the sink, the refrigerator, and the oven, behind the steam rising from the potato boiling pot.
Baba prepares breakfast while humming a song.
The child cannot understand the words Baba sings, but it sounds as sweet as the chirping of crickets in the middle of the night.

Baba serves the child rice in a bowl large enough for the child to swim in.
If your child accidentally spills food, quickly pick it up, kiss it, and then put it back in the bowl.
The child finishes the breakfast prepared by Baba without leaving anything behind.
That's because I remember my mother saying that Baba had a hard time because he didn't have enough to eat.


After finishing the meal, Baba takes the child to school.
Baba's pace is a little slower, but that means the child can take in more of the scenery.
On rainy days, Baba's steps tend to be slower.
That's because I'm picking up earthworms floating in the rainwater.
Baba collects earthworms in a glass bottle and releases them into the garden behind the hut.
Under the tomato, cucumber, carrot and apple trees.
Baba's garden is full of things to see with your eyes, smell with your nose, touch with your hands, and hold in your heart.
A child is also one of the living beings growing in Baba's garden.
But now Baba spends his days lying in the end room of the hallway of the child's house, not in the hut.
A large building was built where the cabin used to be.
The child now takes care of Baba as Baba took care of him.
And I want to give Baba back the vitality that was once abundant in the garden.

A picture book that is like a ray of sunshine in an increasingly barren world.

Following "I Speak Like a River," "In Grandmother's Garden" is also an autobiographical story by poet Jordan Scott.
Jordan's maternal grandmother, Bava, was born and raised in Poland.
He spent his youth in Poland under Nazi and Soviet occupation and immigrated to Canada after World War II.
Then, it is said that he settled in a chicken farm in a seaside village with a sulfur mine.
Baba meticulously decorated and maintained that humble space, breathing life into it so that all beings residing there could live and breathe properly.
That's how I ended up having my own garden.


Jordan Scott reportedly spent a lot of time in the garden.
The grandson, born and raised in Canada, and the grandmother, born and raised in Poland, spent their daily lives together and shared their feelings, communicating nonverbally through eye contact, gestures, and facial expressions instead of words.
That monotonous yet rich daily life must have seeped into young Jordan's heart little by little and deeply, forming his perspective and attitude on life and creating poetic language.
"In Grandmother's Garden" can be said to be a work filled with deep gratitude for that time.

Moreover, Sydney Smith's beautiful paintings transport us all to Baba's yard where young Jordan played.
Even from the perspective of the boy protagonist, the days have already become a thing of the past, so the scenes depicting his daily life with Baba are not filled with much color.
Instead, the light that seems to spread from deep within the painting colors the boy's memories and warms every corner of our hearts.
Furthermore, it creates a place in our hearts for Baba to offer silent comfort and advice at every twist and turn of life.