Despite the fact that Chickasha resident Jackie Byford is almost constantly tethered to an oxygen tube, nothing keeps her away from her gardening.

In fact, the porch of her white frame house is overflowing with potted plants of an astounding variety, every plant manicured to perfection.

“I can’t just sit inside,” says Byford. “It’d just kill me if I couldn’t go outside, so I work a while then come sit down and get me another wind and then get to it again.”

Other plants fill gardens that wrap around the house, including roses, crepe myrtles, canna lilies, chrysanthemums, rose moss, marigolds and periwinkles - to name a few.

The showpiece, however, is a bright pink-red hibiscus that is covered in flowers as big as dinner plates.

“Oh honey, I’ve loved flowers all my life and Mama was the same way. She could put a stick in the ground and it would grow,” said Byford of her enviable green thumb.

Eager to share whatever she has an abundance of, Byford gives away plants freely being careful to admonish recipients not to thank her.

“That’s a sure way to kill it,” she says, suggesting they say “I appreciate it” instead.

When she finally does have to go inside, Byford is greeted with squawks and whistles from Lucky the parrot and Jo Jo the cockatiel, both of whom are able to speak a few words. When intimidated with a flyswatter, Lucky will even slink down and sit in his food dish like it is a recliner. However, he doesn’t stay long and it is evident he is not as intimidated as it first appears.

Another companion that Byford has had since she was a “little black ball,” is Sugar, a nine-year-old Schnauzer in a pink “diamond” studded collar who stations herself at the front door and keeps an eye on the neighborhood as she gazes through the glass door.

Though Sugar alerts Byford of someone approaching the house, she is becoming hard-of-hearing and has cataracts that limit her vision.

“I don’t think she’d bite a hot biscuit,” Byford laughs. “But she minds better than the kids. She knows when I’m sick and she stays right beside me and lays her head on my leg and every once in a while, she’ll look up at me. I think she senses that I’m sick.”

A long-time smoker who quit a few months ago, Byford suffers from COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“You name it, I’ve got it,” says Byford, who gives little credence to common theories about the effects of cigarette smoking, despite the fact she relies heavily on her oxygen tank.

“Honey, I should have been dead by now if that’s what it (smoking) does to you,” she says.