Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 40F. Winds light and variable..

Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 40F. Winds light and variable.

Jean McDuff stands outside the Bardwell House in Rutland recently.

Jean McDuff stands outside the Bardwell House in Rutland recently.

Sunflowers reach for the sky in front of the Bardwell House on Merchants Row in Rutland recently.

Jean McDuff stands outside the Bardwell House in Rutland recently.

Jean McDuff stands outside the Bardwell House in Rutland recently.

Sunflowers reach for the sky in front of the Bardwell House on Merchants Row in Rutland recently.

A wall of towering sunflowers have been waving from outside Rutland’s Bardwell House at the corner of Merchants Row and Washington Street all summer. It might seem that they were a landscaping decision made by the landlord, but it turns out one of its residents has been planting them for years, just to make people smile.

We have Jean McDuff to thank for that. A resident of Bardwell since 2000, he has been planting sunflowers for his community to enjoy for 15 years.

“People love ’em!” McDuff said on a recent sunny day. “I see in the news where in Libya they grow sunflowers for a sign of peace, so that’s what I like. It’s a sign of peace, and I dedicate them to all the residents and staff at Bardwell House.”

“This is his baby and has been for years,” said his twin sister (older by 12 minutes) Jeannine Griffin. “Just yesterday, this couple from Virginia stopped to take pictures, they just thought they were amazing.”

“Every year I give the seeds to the maintenance man, Paul Camp, and he plants them. I tell him, you plant them, and I get the credit,” McDuff said with a laugh. “He gets a kick out of that. He can’t get out of it because I give him seeds every year.”

“Jean is no longer able to bend down and plant so the wonderful maintenance man plants them for him,” Griffin said. “I buy the seeds, he plants them, and my brother talks to them every day, and he’s just so proud. We planted them in the front this year also because we wanted to support Ukraine.”

The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine, and people around the world have been planting them as a sign of solidarity since the country was invaded by Russia earlier this year.

McDuff’s disposition matches the flowers he grows. He has a friendly hello for everyone he passes and a home that bursts with personality including a fridge covered with photos documenting years of sunflowers, Red Sox paraphernalia, and over 100 unique wind chimes. You would never know that he’s had to weather some pretty difficult storms in life.

He grew up in the Northeast Kingdom having moved from Canada at age 5 with his family. His parents spoke only French, which is McDuff’s first language. Soon after, at age 7, it was discovered that he had a brain tumor.

“The next thing I knew I was heading to Boston Children’s Hospital,” McDuff recalled. “That’s where I was operated on. I remember having the spinal tap and the ether, and seeing the dome of people watching the procedure. I was there for months, I went into a coma, I got deformed after the operation. That was the hard part.”

During that time he couldn’t speak much English, but one of the nurses spoke French. She was the only one he could communicate with while he was there and she read stories to him daily. Decades later, they still remembered each other.

“We happened to see her,” McDuff said, “and I went up to her and said, ‘Are you still a Red Sox fan?’ And she saw my eyes and said, ‘Would that be Jean?’ I never saw a woman cry so hard.”

“He was paralyzed on his left side (because) when he was 7 he had a brain tumor and had many surgeries which caused it,” Griffin said. His limitations became worse when, as an adult, he was hit by a car in the Rutland Price Chopper parking lot which caused traumatic brain injury.

“But (he) worked all his life and was independent,” Griffin said.

McDuff worked in a cheese plant for 20 years making “30 to 35,000 pounds of cheese every day,” he said. “I started as a shredder, and then I was a cheesemaker in Richmond for 20 years making mozzarella, provolone and in the spring, feta cheese.”

He volunteered at the Rutland Regional Medical Center for 15 years as a courier, and helped French-speaking doctors translate to their English-speaking patients. He was recognized for his service with letters from Presidents Obama and Bush. And the day he became a naturalized citizen was a big one. “I say I’m not a Canadian, I’m not an American, I’m a ‘Camerican,’” he joked, but added, “I was proud to become an American citizen. I don’t miss the polls now.”

These days, you’ll find him sitting on one of the benches outside the building by his sunflowers where many people stop to admire them and take pictures.

“These over here are from last year’s seeds. They are so big that they droop,” McDuff said about a cluster near Wales Street. “The seeds fall off and in the morning I’ll see tons of birds on the ground eating them.”

“My brother ... (after meeting him) you’re going to feel good,” Griffin said. “He’s that type of person. He is such a positive with everything that he has gone through in life. We are very fortunate to have him.”

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