I'll be looking for you... every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams...
Philip Pullman
It’s hard not to see signs of Emma in our yard when we look outside these days. Our yard is awash in purple, as we have a bumper crop of violets this year. Emma loved these little purple gems that bloomed each year, painting her backyard in her favorite color. It was a spring ritual for Emma to go out in the yard when they first appeared and pick a handful for me. She would bring them inside and we would pull down a cream pitcher to put them in and place them on the kitchen table for all to enjoy. When we were at my mother’s house at this time of year, she would do the same for thing for her Gram. The violets she picked for my mom would be displayed in a tiny white pitcher that had a picture of violets painted on one side. I don’t know if my mom had bought the pitcher or been given the pitcher, but this was its express purpose – to display the bouquets of violets she was presented every spring by her children first and then her grandchildren.
In fact, I think one of the reasons I treasured those little handpicked violet bouquets that Emma picked for me every year is because I still remember picking and presenting a bouquet to my mom every spring. I remember hunting for the prettiest of them scattered around our yard and working hard to gather enough of them to constitute a suitably impressive bouquet. I remember the feeling of love and pride as I presented the little flowers to my mom. And I remember that she always seemed surprised and thrilled each time I brought them to her, just as we both were each time Emma brought the flowers to us.
Thinking of this inspired me. I went outside and picked two little bunches of purple and white violets and put them in two of three tiny blue vases that Emma, Sarah and Peter gave me just for this purpose. One I placed on our kitchen windowsill for all to enjoy and one I’m going to bring to my mom. She’ll be surprised and thrilled.
Our "lawn," too, is covered with violets that,of course, remind me of Emma. She always picked them here, too, although I never had quite the right vase or pitcher for them. I now have a pitcher Emma made, so I think I'll go out and pick some for that pitcher.
ReplyDeleteEmma's other Grandma
Purple flowers are some of my favorites, too. My mother loved lilacs, and I grew to love them to the point where they are my favorite ... by far. Each mother's day, we would plant a lilac tree right outside the kitchen window. But I also love purple pansies, and I have vivid, happy memories of walking home through the woods from elementry school and stopping along the stream beds to make bouquets of "stink cabbage" (that's not the real name, I'll have to try to remember it) and violets - the glorious state flower of NJ! xox
ReplyDeleteI just remembered. We called it "skunk cabbage." It looked pretty but did smell pretty bad.
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