There’s no doubt my love of flowers and of painting them were great gifts from my beautiful Mom. In the Summer, you could look out any one of our Michigan farmhouse windows and see rows and mounds of color reaching up toward the sun. If you were lucky enough to have chosen the right window, you might see her bent down amidst the glorious color, weeding or transplanting her precious gifts. She couldn’t get enough of the miracle of their growth and would spend hours in the sunshine along with the butterflies, tending to each variety of daisy, cosmos, poppy and zinnia, not to mention her enormous sunflower and herb gardens. Hummingbirds regarded her as one of the flowers and would often perch on her shoulder and rest awhile.
Despite my Mom’s love for flowers, we never had them in the house. She kept them intact in the garden to breathe the heavenly air in their dwelling as long as God deemed fit. Conversely, I’ve always loved a cutting garden and adore having fresh flowers in my home regularly.
I remember one of my last visits to the farm in late Autumn when my Mom still had her sight and could enjoy the late blooming orange marigolds that had persisted through Fall to keep her garden looking bright. It was my birthday and as always when I pulled up into the yard, she was in the house at the kitchen table painting flowers. She came out to greet me with open arms. As I followed her through the back door and up the two steps to the kitchen, I spied a flower arrangement on the kitchen table amongst her paints and brushes. She had picked them early and put them in a simple jar with curled ribbon.
“These miracles are for you,” she said. I thought she had said “Miracles.” “Marigolds, she smiled.” She handed me the jar and I was overjoyed by the thought of her cutting her garden flowers especially for me.
She loves her flowers, but not in vases; trusts they’ll thrive from our Lord’s gazes.
I love my flowers in simple vases, with curled ribbon for special places.
She knows I do.
* * *
Mother’s Day love to you in Heaven, Mom. I miss you more with each new day. Thank you for your love and the gift of my life. Thank you for friendship, eternal and true.
elizabeth tichvon, artist 