NATCHEZ — New life is blooming in Donna Young Mallini’s front yard for the first time in years.

And though Mallini’s focusing her attention on the garden, it’s the love of her husband James that truly got things growing again.

Mallini is celebrating her fifth year of remission from leukemia and her first few weeks of truly feeling like her old self again.

“This is the first time I’ve got to actually do something,” Mallini said. “I told my husband I wanted to come out and clean up.”

So Mallini was outside weeding the garden last week when The Dart fell on Cherokee Street in Natchez. James was pressure washing the driveway.

The couple has been married for eight years — a second marriage for both — and Donna credits James’ support in her victory over cancer.

“He never let me quit,” she said. “He’s a retired Marine so (he) doesn’t know what the words ‘can’t’ and ‘won’t’ mean. But without him, I would’ve given up.”

With a new outlook on life, Donna is focused on her Natchez house after spending six years alternating between it and a residence on the Gulf Coast, closer to medical treatment. Now that she’s back home, she can’t wait to spruce things up.

“This is all about family,” she said. “This is where my kids grew up.”

Mallini and her first husband bought the Cherokee Street home in 1971. It was their first home as newlyweds; and it was old then.

“You should’ve seen it when we got it, it was horrible,” she said. “When we took the old wallpaper down, there were spaces in the wall. The house was so old that the wood was cut by hand, and it wasn’t even. The spaces were stuffed with newspaper.

“We had to do a lot of work, but we knew we needed to live here.”

Mallini said now she has far too many memories and far more hours put into remodeling the house.

“We would expect 40 to 50 people at my house around Christmas,” she said. “I just can’t tear myself away.

“Natchez has been everything I know, that’s why I keep coming back.”