Helen clearing her land with her dog, Spot, 1949.

May, with its life-affirming new blooms, was a significant month for Helen Brooke Taussig, one of the 20th century’s most important doctors and the subject of my new biography, A Heart Afire (MIT Press, Dec. 12, 2023). She was born in May (May 24, 1898). She staged garden parties in May. She died in May (May 20, 1986). Who was she? A saint or a holy terror, depending on where you stood during her lifelong crusade for patients.

But back to May. When she wasn’t saving lives and founding the study of children’s hearts, Helen cultivated beauty. It took years and help from doctors she trained to turn her vast expanse of dirt and rocks in Baltimore into a colorful landscape. May was its showiest and when she regularly invited these doctors back to her garden to dine and share their discoveries. After she retired and moved away, Helen returned to Baltimore herself each May to see her gardens.

I don’t know if she grew lily-of-the-valley, the delicate small white flower associated with May, but one of Helen’s friends told me she did grow towering white lilies, which she dug up and presented to a colleague mourning the death of her husband.