A Hummingbird Sent from Mama

UTICA, Neb. – After her mama died in July of 2016, a hummingbird came to visit Liz Garcia.

“The hummingbird flew to my face and hovered there.?I knew that mama was sending a message to me.?I knew she was with me,” Garcia said.?

Then she started researching hummingbirds, “I didn’t have a hummingbird feeder.?So, I started with a shot glass full of sugar water on my porch. I would sit there, and they would eat out of it.”

Today, Garcia has an exquisite garden, perfectly suited for hummingbirds and all sorts of creatures in the backyard.?At its peak, she has witnessed 50 hummingbirds at a time gathering there, “They’re fighters.?They have to be.?They are the smallest bird out there and they have to survive the trip from Mexico to Canada and back every year.?Just think of all the obstacles it takes for them to survive.”

Garcia’s journey to a hummingbird garden in Utica, Neb. begins on the Indian Reservation near Riverton, Wyo.?Her mom’s family are of the Shoshoni tribe.?Just before her kindergarten year, their family moved to Cozad, then Maxwell and Gothenburg, where she graduated from high school.?

“I worked for a few years after graduating and a friend of mine came to me and said she was going to join the Navy and asked if I wanted to join too,” Garcia said. “I was in the Navy from November of 1994 to July of 1997.?I was in boot camp at Great Lakes, then was stationed in Bremerton, Wash. and went from there on a West Pac (Pacific) Tour.?We went overseas for six months to Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, the Persian Gulf, United Arab Emirates, then Guam and Hawaii a few times. We also went along the West Coast to San Diego, San Francisco, and Canada too.”

“I was sent in as a seaman and worked on the deck for eight months,” she went on.?“Then the Senior Chief said, ‘You work harder than most of the men out here.?Do you want a job in the office?’?I worked as the yeoman (secretary) and drew up all the maps from where our fuel lines or cargo carts would go across to meet the other ship stations.?Our theme song on the ship was the ‘Elephant Song.’?We would pull up beside another ship and play our song and when we jetted away, we would play the song.?That was a sign of a successful unrep at sea with no injuries.”?

“It was pretty cool,” Garcia admitted with a smile.?“I loved being in the military.?Then I got pregnant with my son.?His dad and I had split up.?I was on sea duty.?In order to stay in the military, I had to have someone take my son Tyler and I wanted to raise him myself.?I got an honorable discharge.”

“I was a single mom for seven years,” Garcia went on.?“Then I met my husband Jerry in North Platte.?We just instantly hit it off.?We were kind of inseparable after that.?Rachel was born in 2005 shortly before we moved here to Utica for my husband’s job.”

Jerry was eventually promoted to site lead at a large seed company, “His parents have a honeybee farm that has been in the family since the 1940s in Mesilla, N.M.?They also have a pecan orchard and would shake pecan trees for other families also.?That’s all they ever knew was farm life.?That is why he went to New Mexico State University to study agronomy.”?

Garcia worked at a daycare and ran a daycare as well as took a position as a banker, “Then I decided to stay home with Rachel.?That’s when I turned to photography.?We moved to Utica in June of 2016 and my mom died in July, so mom did not get to see our house.?I was very close with my mom.?It was very hard.?Mom was softhearted, kind, and a nurturer to pretty much anyone.?She was pretty amazing.”?

“Mom taught me to bake bread and cook,” she recalled.?“There were seven of us, so every week we would make 10 loaves of homemade bread and big pans of cinnamon rolls.?We did a lot of baking, canning, and making gravy.?Mom would make gravy in all sorts of ways. To this day, I love gravy.?We would use the drippings from the meat or just Crisco to get the gravy started, then add flour, put a can or two of cream and then milk or water to dilute it.?We would even make tomato gravy and eat it over homemade bread or fried bread.”

While the bread was baking, there was always a garden to tend to, “My grandmother loved the flower, ‘Four O’Clocks’ and my great grandma had huge honeysuckle trumpet vines.?When I was little, I remember walking around the yard with her before she eventually was in a wheelchair and she would say, ‘Here, taste it.?It tastes good.’?Now, in my garden, I have honeysuckle, and when I look at it, I think of her.”

Garcia credits her great grandmother for helping to develop her love for birds, “She made hand-embroidered quilts with birds on them. She would make quilt patterns by tracing bird designs from coloring books.?I was always fascinated by them.?Then, when I was sitting with great grandma one day when I was 15, she died right in front of me.?She was sitting in the wheelchair, and I was sitting on the bed talking to her as we held hands.”?

Not unlike the flight of the hummingbirds across the continent, Garcia’s life has its share of obstacles, but also joys too.?That path led the resilient lady to the flower garden in her back yard, surrounded by the resilient birds, plants, and beautiful family she loves so much.?With camera in tow, you may also find her traveling across the countryside listening to My Bridge Radio seeking out owls, hummingbirds, and other wildlife to photograph.?

In 2018, one of Garcia’s photos won the Nebraskaland Magazine Best of Show contest.?The photo of a hummingbird, flower, and bee interacting she calls, “The Birds and the Bees.”?

But it’s not about awards at all for Garcia.?It’s about doing what she loves, “God shows me what I love.?To me, I feel like He knew what I needed.?He knew my heart needed to heal.?Just like the song, ‘He knows my heart and he shows me.’”

God put birds and beauty in Garcia’s path, and she captures them like a professional with the patience of an explorer in pursuit.?The hobby turned passion also helps mend her heart, “I poured myself into my photography when mom passed.?When I have an owl in front of me, it’s me and that owl.?I am looking into the owl’s eyes.?I am freed.?It’s kind of like the feeling when horseback riding – the freedom of riding in the wind.”

“I love a challenge.?To find an owl is difficult, it can take hours and hours of driving and looking to find the habitats each species likes,” she noted.?

“Out in nature, with no other people around, it’s me and God and whatever is in front of me,” Garcia said, looking up at the wall where she hand-painted a tree to hang her family photos.?A tree inspired by her mother’s two, decorative owls that also adorn the walls of her home.?“I am thankful.”

You will be thankful that Liz came across your life’s path too.?Follow her incredible photography and knowledge of nature at Liz Garcia Photography:?www.facebook.com/LizlieGarciePhotography