Labor of Love: A Doctor's Hobby Shapes a Life with Orchids

摘要

IT STARTED IN THE SPRING OF 1936, when a prominent doctor living in Middleton, Wisconsin, asked a pair of teenage boys from a farm some miles away to lend a helping hand around his estate. The two boys were my father, Walter Acker, and his younger brother, Paul, who were both living and working on my grandfather's farm. The doctor's chores consisted of mowing, painting, changing storm windows and trimming trees. But the most exciting chore of all was being able to work in and around the doctor's small greenhouse that was attached to his home. In this greenhouse was a small collection of orchids, a type of plant the boys had never seen.