Grandma's Flowers

 My 93 year old mother-in-law is now in an assisted-living apartment. The yard of her previous home was beautiful with lots and lots of gorgeous flowers. She loved being in her garden and tending her plants. From the time I first met her she gardened - growing veggies and flowers. It was sad to see her have to leave her home and her flower gardens that she loved so much. We have wonderful memories of her and her gardens  ... of the tasty veggies, the pretty flowers.

We not only have those memories, but now we have some of those plants.  The photos on here are some of the flowers we picked at her former home the day we had gone to see her at her new place, the second home she has been in since she had to move from her "own" home.

 She has
done well, over the years since her husband died, on her own, with the help of her children. But it came that time when she could no longer stay alone and was beginning to have some memory problems and needed closer supervision. It was hard for her and for the family to make this change, but best for her, to no longer live by herself in the home she could no longer care for as well as before. 

Not wanting to just let her flower garden "go to pot", her family members began digging up plants to transplant at their homes.  My husband and I now have plants in our yard from his Mom's flower garden: iris, peonies, roses, etc. We replanted some last year and then, again, some more this year. 

 While digging up the ones to take with us to transplant we kept thinking it would be  a shame to just let all the beautiful blooms in the garden sit there and die.  One of the neighbors came over to talk while we were digging up plants; my husband told her to feel free to cut bouquets from the garden.  She was pleased and thanked us.  His Mom would be happy knowing someone was enjoying her flowers.

We, too, began cutting blooms to take home with us for bouquets.  As we had a couple of hours or so to get home from there, we filled a couple of buckets with water and popped in the cut flowers. I've never had so many beautiful bouquets at one time! On the way home our car smelled wonderful. :)  I took a large bouquet of iris to church the next Sunday and the church smelled wonderful, too. I was, on the one hand, sad that Grandma wasn't there to care for and to enjoy her flowers still. At the same time, I was also sure that she would be very happy to know that her family members were digging up and transplanting some of her plants at our homes, cutting the blooms for beautiful bouquets. If we move from our present home I expect to take some of those plants with us ... and maybe our children will also  want to come and "dig" in our backyard and transplant some of their Grandma's flowers, because

they, too, remember how much their Grandma Clayton loved her garden and flower beds.

If we live, we get old. We finally get to a place, often, where we can no longer be on our own; no longer "do" as we did before. I am not yet at that place but I can well imagine the distress of giving up your home ... your independence. I have "felt" for my mother-in-law as I've watched her having to make such changes; as well as for her family having to convince her that she needs to make the changes.

She has always been a strong, active person; she loved living out on their farm. It was hard for her when my father-in-law died; she missed him greatly.  She stayed out on the farm for a few years as she grieved his loss.  Then she knew she needed to move to town, and moved closer to one of her daughters, but she always preferred living on the farm.

And now, at age 93, here she has had to move again. In her "good" moments she speaks of missing her family - and of missing her flowers. We've shown her photos of some of the flowers blooming in our yard that we'd transplanted from her garden. She was pleased.

Grandma's flowers were rooted in - some started out on their farm and were transplanted to town. They survived the move; they adapted to their new place and bloomed beautifully. They

 even had "friends", as my mother-in-law added new plants over the years.  Like Grandma herself.  She was rooted-in at the farm but was transplanted to town.  She, too, survived and adapted to her new surroundings and made new friends.

Now, she has been uprooted again and, hopefully, is getting "rooted-in" once more to a new place, adapting and making new friends, just as her beloved flowers have done. She is, at 93, as beautiful as her flowers ... she would prefer, still, to be at her farm or at her previous home, digging in her flower bed. But she is trying to adapt to her new surroundings. Her next "transplant" will be her easiest to adapt to. Whenever God calls her to come plant some flowers in heaven, she will be ready. She has known and loved God for a very long time; she and her husband became Christians early on - she knows, without a doubt, where he is and where she will go and has no fear.

She will be ready to be "rooted-in" again when God calls. 

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