The Peace Lily

In addition to cooking, Mom had another job for me during my visit home, but this one was truly a labor of love. Back in December during my last visit, she had asked me to re-pot one of her house plants. I suggested waiting until the summer since winter is a more dormant time for most plants and I didn't want to shock it too badly and damage it. After all, this plant is special.

It's a peace lily and it's been with my Mom for over 10 years. For her, that's quite an accomplishment. When I was growing up, green things were pretty much my Dad's domain, and with 18.5 acres of farm land around our house, he had something growing pretty much all the time. He used to joke that Mom had a black thumb and she'd probably kill a plant if she had one. Aside from the random african violet on the kitchen window sill, plants weren't really part of the decor inside the house.

I'm convinced my Dad has had a hand in her success with this particular plant, because he is the reason it came into her life.

When he passed away shortly before Christmas in 2000, a group of my closest friends from college sent this peace lily to my mother in honor of his passing. I still remember going home for the funeral and reading the card from the florist with her, watching her shock and surprise that people she had met  only briefly would make such a kind gesture. Long after other flowers she received passed their peak and were discarded, the peace lily thrived.

I had re-potted it once before, but it must have been over five years ago. The plant was still healthy, but it had stopped blooming and we were pretty convinced it was from being constricted in a pot it had outgrown. It just needed a new pot and a little love to get it going again. So we found a tape measure, got the dimensions of the old pot and set out to Lowe's to pick out a suitable replacement.

Once we had secured a larger pot and some fresh potting soil, I took the peace lily outside to get it ready for its new home. The roots were clustered tightly together at the bottom of the old pot, so I spread them apart and cleared away some of the older yellowed leaves withering under the canopy of healthy ones. Then it was time to move the plant into it's new space and give it a nice long drink of water.

Thankfully the larger pot still fits in the sunny corner of the living room where Mom can keep an eye on it. She can easily see it from her favorite TV watching spot, which coincidentally is positioned at just about the same distance and angle from which she used to watch my Dad fall asleep in his favorite recliner at our old house.

This peace lily is a beautiful, evergreen reminder that real love never dies. It just adapts to find ways to stay in your heart forever.

I'm excited to check on it when I'm home around Christmas to make sure it's blooming again. Something tells me Daddy and his green thumb will find a way to make that happen.