Losing favorite knife sure cut deep
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This is the Swiss army knife unearthed from my garden in Ross. It was a gift from Mandi Wright.
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In the heat of battle, the most treasured things can be lost in the garden. While filming a video about planting huge tomatoes, my prized pocket knife went missing, and I was distraught.
One minute I was cutting the plastic around the root ball, but after returning from getting a tomato cage, I realized the knife was not in its sheath.
Video production ground to a halt as I searched frantically for the black Swiss army knife that my friend and co-worker Mandi Wright gave me when I left the Medina County Gazette in Ohio.
That knife meant the world to me, connecting me to a place I loved and a dear friend who introduced me to Pittsburgh. Ms. Wright, who now works for the Detroit Free Press, is a native Pittsburgher and waxed eloquently about the hometown she longed for while working in Ohio.
The knife had been my constant companion over the years in the garden, cutting countless yards of twine and performing many jobs; it really was the perfect gift for a gardener.
I carefully re-traced my steps, hoping the knife would appear. On my hands and knees, I dug around the roots of the huge tomato plants and even watched the video for a clue. My heart sank as I finished the video still without my precious gift. Over the next couple days, I went back out, fruitlessly looking for the knife before finally calling off the search. I wondered how I would explain my loss to Ms. Wright. Over the past 12 years, I had made a point of proudly showing her the knife when we crossed paths.
While sulking a few days later, I had an epiphany: I called my neighbor, Rob Joswiak, who has a metal detector. Whenever I'm in trouble, Mr. Joswiak is there, saving me countless times with tools, advice and an innate knack for figuring things out.
It was Memorial Day and he was headed for a party, but he promised to come down the next Thursday to poke around. My sulking progressed to brooding as the prospect of another few days without the knife set in. Suddenly, I heard the dogs bark. It was Mr. Joswiak at the back door, metal detector in hand.
First Published June 26, 2010 12:00 am
