This reminds me of a particular lady i once heard her story at love garden in my school Lagos State University. Love garden is a place where beautiful flowers and trees were planted,but most students spend their leisure time under the trees playing and chatting with themselves..
Semilore was a bright, outspoken 300-level Botany student at the Lagos State University Ojo,Known for her big smile and even bigger afros, Semilore was the kind of girl who made friends in seconds and left a trail of laughter wherever she went. She got her heart break, nobody saw it coming not even her
She and Daniel had been dating for almost two years. He was a quiet Engineering student a little awkward, but loyal. Or so everyone thought. One rainy evening, after weeks of strange silence and cold chats, Daniel ended it in the worst way possible: a short text message that read, “I don’t think this is working anymore. Please understand.”
Just like that.
For the first few days, Semilore disappeared. She skipped lectures, missed practicals, and turned off her phone. Her roommates said she stared at the ceiling for hours. But by the next week, something changed. She began spending most of her time in the school love garden not for her course work, but to sit and “talk” to the plants.
At first, people thought she was doing research. After all, she was a Botany student. But then they heard her whispering to a pot of aloe vera like it was her childhood best friend.
“I should have listened to you,” she’d say, stroking the thick, spiky leaves. “You were right about him.”
She gave them names: the hibiscus was “Mama Peace,” the cactus was “Sharp Mouth,” and a small sunflower she planted herself was named “Hope.” Every day, Semilore would come with a small bottle of water, a notebook, and snacks not for herself, but “offerings” for her plant friends.
One evening, a coursemate, Ife, found her hugging a hanging fern. When she asked her if she was okay, she replied, “Better than I was when I trusted humans.”
It became a campus joke. “Semilore and her leaf squad.” But over time, the mockery turned to admiration. She looked happier. Healthier. She wrote a final-year project on Plant Communication and Emotional Therapy, and surprisingly, it gained attention from her lecturers even earning her a scholarship offer for a mental health and horticulture conference in South Africa.
In her own words:
“People say I went mad. Maybe I did. But in that madness, I found peace. Plants don’t lie. They don’t cheat. They grow silently, and if you treat them well, they love you back.”
Semilore graduated top of her class and now runs a mental wellness garden in Enegu called Healing Leaves, where she teaches others how to use plants to cope with emotional pain.
Her story became a symbol across campus of turning heartbreak into healing, and of finding calm in the most unexpected places.
