peak color

Every year, our Christmas cactus blooms near Thanksgiving and slowly flowers until January. The pale pink blossoms are a lovely holiday decoration to a normally green corner of our home. 

When the blooms arrive, it's a gentle reminder of the original caretaker of this plant, Mo's paternal grandmother, who passed away 12 years ago now. I never had the pleasure of meeting "Ga," as she was called, as Mo and I started dating the year she died. But I wish I could have! She was a world traveler, teacher, artist, philanthropist, and with personality, it sounds.

Now we are contented to care for her 50+ year old plant. At first I was nervous about the responsibility, but the cactus seems to have weathered our family and multiple moves with gusto. The flowers keep coming, year after year, and we remember with love, our family members who have gone on. 

Just across the room, we have a newer addition to our greenery. When we were cleaning up the leaves that first fall in our newest home, we discovered a dirty pot, half buried in an overgrown flower bed. The  plant within was alive, but just barely. We don't know if it was an outside plant, or just forgotten in the previous owner's move. I cleaned it off and brought it inside for the winter. 

Now, two years later, we have a second Christmas cactus, thriving like our original, blooming simultaneously. This time in hot pink. 

The bright flowers also remind us of those who care. I think of Miss Clare, the previous owner, who was so kind to us in our transition to our home, and who everyone seems to adore. After her husband passed away, the house and yard we live in became too much for her to maintain. I think moving out was difficult, but she seemed happy to be passing the home to us and our boys. 

(She would be appalled to see what we have managed to do to her cream-colored carpet in 2 1/2 years.)

I wonder if this plant was hers or her husband's. I hope they would be happy to see how it's thriving, just like we are in the home they loved. Despite the stains in the carpet.