Trending
My patience has paid off. It took seven years, but Mom has sent me a message from heaven. When Mom passed away in 2017, I inherited two of her many live plants. They are Christmas cactus plants that held a prominent window seat location in the dining room of my childhood home.
It's the same room where she taught us to play cards. One of my last memories of her was seeing her sitting at the dining room table, playing Solitaire, surrounded by a menagerie of plants.
This room and just about every other window seat in Mom's house held assorted living plants. Some were rather exotic while others resembled overgrown weeds. She enjoyed getting her hands in the dirt and could be found sitting on the sidewalk on the side or her house where she was planting or weeding her flower gardens. She did this well into her later years.
As for the cactus plants, I placed both of them on a table in our home that faces southwest. I figured it was about the same position the plants held at Mom's house. The large plant bloomed the very first year it took up residence in our rural home, but the smaller plant failed to produce any blooms.
Each year that I have tended the plants, I would delight at the beautiful red blooms on the large plant. It bloomed around Thanksgiving and several more times throughout the year.
Sadly, the smaller plant refused to bloom. It did grow more of its spongy arms, just without the same results of its bigger cousin. That is, until last week. I first noticed a hint of color on the tips of the plant shoots.
Then, slowly these gorgeous pink blooms began to unfurl. I know it's silly to get so excited about such things, but with everything going on around us in the world and even locally, it was a small and welcome bit of joy.
I immediately thought of Mom and how the month of May was hers. Her birthday and Mother's Day sometimes fell on the same day of the year. As a result, the month of May would be filled with flowers for Mom from all of her 12 children and several grandkids. Her front porch would resemble a greenhouse as more and more flowers arrived.
Is it ironic that her little cactus plant, now mine, began to bloom as the month of May unfolded? I'd like to think she had something to do with it. Maybe it was her way of reminding me that there is still beauty in the world if you have the patience to watch and wait. Thanks, Mom.
Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.