My mother always loved African Violets and she always had at least one as long as I can remember. Unfortunately Giving her an African Violet was like relegating it to Hospice. Mom had a knack for killing all house plants except for geraniums (possibly her second favorite plant). I think her  favorite color back in the day was purple especially when it came to African Violets.

When mom first got cancer her hospital room was filled with African Violets. They flourished as long as they were in the loving care of her nurses but as always, when they went home with her their days became numbered.

All the while, she would ignore her geraniums, she even abandoned some of them in the basement at times and they survived and flourished. The best thing to ever happen to the African Violets of the world was when my father’s allergies got so bad that she could no  longer have plants, especially flowering plants, in the house. She compensated by having them in her offices at work whether at the Ski Company or the “Blue Ladies” office at the hospital. She kept and killed lots of African Violets over the years but her love  of them never waned…

When I see an African Violet it always brings back memories of mom. Not sad ones over the death of so many unsuspecting plants, no it was the joy she showed everytime she got one as a gift.

Last Saturday night (October 5th, 2019), while celebrating five years of being cancer free for a friend of Julie’s it came crashing in… memories, lots of memories. I was so excited for her and her “clean bill of heath” but sitting right in front of me on her kitchen counter was  a thriving African Violet.

Life has it’s way of bringing reality knocking on the door of your inner most memories.

“I love this story.  I remember the same about the purple African violets.  Also red tulips.  When we moved from Hopkins street to the west end, she told me she hated to leave the Lilacs and her red tulips, because red tulips were her favorite.  Every year I plant a few tulips somewhere.  I just got my bulb order in the mail.  Would you like a few?  They are not solid red.  I also plant daffodils, because they were grand pas favorite and they are my favorite too.  Also the deer eat the tulips and not the daffodils”

– Debbie Beck Kendrick, October 9, 2019