Wilma Manners stood silently in the shadow of a huge walnut tree in front of the home she was born in. Stoically, she watched a group of volunteers meticulously dig out daffodil bulbs.

They weren't ordinary bulbs; they held a special meaning. Her late brother, John Frey, had planted them many years before. One set of flowers spelled out the words "Welcome Spring" 100 feet long, another formed a 55-foot cross.

They had been a landmark in Marshall for as long as anyone could remember.

Manners tried to put on a happy face, but it was obviously a bittersweet moment. The final 40 acres of the family farm were sold last year, and construction will begin soon on a new housing plan.

Manners' voice cracked and she began to cry as she explained that her parents also were born there and her brother had died there.

"It's rough," her husband, Bill, said, looking over at his wife, "trying to keep your emotions straight."

They stood only a few yards from the front porch where Manners and her brother would sit on cool spring evenings watching cars stop so people could appreciate the spectacle of blooms. Those flowers announced the end of winter for anyone driving the twisting turns of Warrendale Bayne Road.

Now, the house is demolished. All that's left are remnants of a couple walls, the hearth and some kitchen cabinets.

The daffodils would have fallen to the same fate, but salvation came in an unlikely form, that of a 17 year-old Boy Scout named Jeremy Corll, of Pine. As part of his Eagle Scout project, he is moving the bulbs down the road a mile to Mount Pleasant United Presbyterian Church, where his father, the Rev. Dr. Daniel Corll, is pastor.

The church, on Pleasant Hill Road in Marshall, has a hillside overlooking the winding, hilly road. It will provide the perfect view of the flowers.

Back at the farm, the site looked like an archaeological dig, with the perimeter of the cross marked with string.

After the blooms faded this spring, Jeremy Corll and his fatherstaked out the exact position of the bulbs, and they've kept the area weeded,.

A team of Scouts, joined by Corll's family, were digging out the bulbs by hand and then transporting them to the church. They would find 30,000 bulbs in the cross alone, twice the number estimated, but would get them all removed in one day.

Corll said the flowers are important to the area, a tradition that he didn't want to see end.

"The community would be upset if it was destroyed, because they've always known it to be there," he said. "I think they'd feel like a part of them was missing; they've always expected it to be there each spring."

Despite the tears, the Mannerses are overjoyed that the symbol Frey created will live on for years to come.

"I don't think Jeremy realizes what a big undertaking it is," Bill Manners said with a laugh.

"I don't know of many Eagle projects that have this kind of enduring memory. Fifty years from now, when I'm dead and gone, somebody will remember how it was done. Maybe Jeremy's kids will say, 'Hey my dad put that in!' "

Wilma Manners listened quietly as Bill talked about the project and couldn't hold back the tears as she expressed her appreciation for what Corll was doing.

"There just are no words I could use to express how grateful I am, for a young man to take an interest in this," she said.

She paused for a moment trying to collect herself, and then wondered out loud what her brother would say.

"I sort of imagine he would be very grateful that someone would think about preserving this."

For information or to volunteer, see www.mtpleasantchurch.org or call Jeremy Corll at 724-934-3635.