Forget-me-not

The day before Palm Sunday my church decorating partner, Janet, and I were preparing wreaths for the church’s front doors.  We had just learned that our Sacristan had lost her father the day before.  He was 93 years old, had lived 1000+ miles away in Florida, and Sue had no desire to talk about it. 

I mentioned to Janet that when my mom died I was ever so grateful that people wanted to, and would, talk about her and her life.  They often had great stories to tell or tidbits of wisdom of hers that they wanted to share.  She was a great listener and could make a stranger instantly comfortable; so much so that she would learn his life story within minutes of meeting him, literally.  One day when going to a oncologist’s appointment she got to talking to someone on the elevator.  Between the second floor and the seventh she learned more about that person than some people know about their family.

OROC run 2008 - My sister & mom

Janet then asked me if I thought about my mom much.  Only every single day.  She was my mom.  Of any one person in this world, she had the biggest impact.  I learned how to walk and talk under her guidance.  I learned how to treat people and that words have an impact.  She taught me to cook and clean and garden.  She showed me how to be a wife. 

I inherited a great love of gardening from my mom.  She never met a garden center she didn’t like and often came home with a good case of “sticky pots.”  She would pick up a potted plant and it would stick to her hands, so of course, she just had to leave with it!

Something I love about our many gardens is that they have plants given to me from others, split from ones in their garden.  A number of years before we lost mom, she was in her garden with Himself.  He really liked one of the flowers she had planted, Myosotis, so she dug him out a several clumps.  They were hardly bigger than a couple of half dollar coins.  Himself planted them near our statue of the Holy Family. 

Over the years these flowers have spread to almost every open piece of ground in that garden.  They give us a summer long carpet of tiny blue flowers.  And every time we see them we are reminded of my mom, for what is their common name? 

Forget-me-nots!

Happy Birthday Mom!

AMDG