Story Archive

His Mother Will Be Perplexed by the Holes in the Garden

In 1958, when Bill Teitleff was 18 years old, he needed a Mother’s Day gift for his mom, but had no money. He noticed that Centennial Park in Nashville, Tenn., had “the most beautiful, perfectly formed hydrangeas you’ve ever seen. They were just perfect in rows and pots.” He admits he stole two pots to give to his mother. “I thought all along that I was borrowing them,” Teitleff says. “But this stayed with me all this time.” Now 72, he still felt so guilty that he had to do something about it. The flowering plants are still alive, so he went to his mother’s house and dug up the two plants, and returned them to the city. “This doesn’t clear what I did,” Teitleff says. “Sometimes it hurts when we go back and ask somebody for forgiveness, but when we do, we feel better inside and that person thinks a lot more of us.” (RC/WSMV Nashville) ...It’s never too late for a new beginning.