Commentary: The Sunflower Boy's Smile

CNN ^ | 10/04/2009 | Bob Greene

[Dallas59]

On the morning of last year's annual Sunflower Fair in La Porte, Indiana, a family, appearing a little lost, walked up and down a crowded street, looking in vain for the table to sign up their entry. They carried a large sunflower with them.

If no one noticed the exhausted, grieving look in the family's eyes, that was understandable. The Sunflower Fair is a place of happy noise: rides and music and food booths. It is La Porte's fall festival, and people from across northwest Indiana come to spend a Saturday in the midst of the milling, chattering crowds.

The family silently bearing the large sunflower had never been to the fair before.

But this was important.

They finally located the entry table, and asked for a form. They carefully filled it out. Their flower was entered in the seed head category -- the one that judges the largest seed head, which is the circular area in the middle of a sunflower.

They wrote down the name of the person who had grown the sunflower:

Wyatt Wilke.

[Dallas59]

Sad story....

[JRandomFreeper]

You must have stock in Kleenex(tm) to post a story like this.

And now my monitor is all fuzzy.

/johnny

[Pontiac]

Sad story....

Heart breaker.

[MS.BEHAVIN]

You should have posted a hanky alert.
Sad story..
Poor little guy..

[rabidralph]

Thank you for posting it. Very sad.

[jocon307]

WOW, bump!