Human relationships are at the heart of our campaign and nowhere is this more evident than in our house parties.
Helen Kahn, a friend and neighbor, signed up to wrangle house parties for the campaign. We both thought there would be an initial flurry and then they’d plateau. We were wrong.
Folks across the region continue to open their homes in astounding numbers and I’m tremendously grateful.
Tonight, my friend and neighbor, the incomparable Joyce Rosenfeld, hosted a party in the Baystate neighborhood of Florence. (You can see some of the folks who attended at right.)
A quintessential garden party.
Joyce introduced me using the words, below – from one gardener to the other.
The evening was so stunning and Joyce’s words so remarkably beautiful, I had to share them both.
From Joyce:
I chose to honor Jo Comerford’s election to the State Senate, immediately, with a garden party. Because Jo is a gardener. She gardened me. I am one who was nurtured in my blooming saga by Jo when I was her volunteer for the American Friends Service Committee and she, incomparably, was Director..
What I experienced, working with Jo, is what could be accomplished by we people, when in communion, when we are nurtured with kindness and faith. Those three years, when I was just becoming 70 were amazing and, life changing I learned so much.
However, this is a garden party. So, in accordance with that miraculous theme, I’ll speak of how I see Jo as part of the garden…
She is like a red oak. Mighty. Grounded. Reaching for the sky even as it reaches its strong boughs out and over to offer us shelter and shade. A truth.
She is like a morning glory. A Mandevilla vine, A moon flower. Tenacious, striving. Committed to striving, ever around and upward, night or day, in pursuit of justice, even while bursing into brilliant bloom.
She is like the daisy. Truly plebeian. Truly democratic. Fresh and lasting.
She is like grass and like grass has roots that run deep and far and wide in intricate, interconnected weavings forming collaborations and coalitions that withstand and persist.
So I present Jo – a veritable garden herself – who is the very heart of the rose…
I chose to honor Jo Comerford’s election to the State Senate, immediately, with a garden party. Because Jo is a gardener. She gardened me. I am one who was nurtured in my blooming saga by Jo when I was her volunteer for the American Friends Service Committee and she, incomparably, was Director.. 
