A Lilac’s Tale

My Mom had a green thumb, and I have no doubt she still has one on the other side of life. I say this because she had two large lilac clusters, a white one to the East of the house and just beyond the driveway. The other was to the West, a double cluster of purples which gave the color lilac its name. My Mom could see the purples from her bedroom windows and the whites from the front porch and dining room. In the springtime they filled the air with their sweet scent and most people filled their lungs with it in appreciation for the little joys God gives us. A few years after Mom passed back into spirit, I found a young lilac sprouting in a flowerbed in the front yard. It was a single stem and barely five inches high when I found it. It was so young there was no telling if it had come from the white or the purple adults. But I did know it was where I normally mowed so I dug it up and put it in a pot for its safety. I nurtured it through summer and winter to make sure it was doing well, but I knew it wasn’t for me. One of my sisters needed this touch from Mom and so I asked if she wanted it and at her delighted “yes” I asked where. She told me the perfect place for when it got older. I planted it outside her bathroom window so she could see and smell it in the spring, once the lilac grew old enough to bloom. That was in 1997 if I remember right, which I might not be since I’m truly terrible remembering numbers but for the intense dates. Anyway, the point I was coming around to is the beautiful lilac cluster that it is today. As for the color, well, all the flowers were lilac purple except for one cluster, which was white as snow.

Nice, Mom, very nice, and beautiful too. oh... I forgot to say my sister has since had several strokes and a heart attack. She is wheelchair bound and can't stand without help, while it takes her time to say what she wants to say with a blur to her words. There are also times when her mind is claimed by the past rather than the now, but that's all right. She is still herself, and when she is helped to stand in her bathroom, either for the tub or other, she can see that growing lilac tree out her window. In the spring she can smell the flowers and see them with her own eyes, even if she can't walk out to them. Love you, Sis, always.