My mom got flowers about a month ago and she has been floating on air ever since. It wasn’t a romantic gesture but more of a ‘thank you’; no matter, what’s important is that she got flowers and it made her day.

Some storms had come through recently and there was some damage to her roof. My brother (the Polebilly Prince) hired some men to mend the roof for Babcia. They were up on the roof for a few days working and making lots of noise. When they’d completed their task, they did two things that made a big impression on Babcia. First, they completely cleaned up their mess in the yard. She’d had some work done in the past where that wasn’t the case, so she was impressed with their work ethic. Second, as a ‘thank you for your business’ they gave her a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Of course, my brother and I started to tease her immediately because that’s what we do. “Which one were you flirting with?” “You must’ve made an impression on someone to get flowers” “Does someone have a new boyfriend?” “Someone you want to tell me about?” Babcia jokingly smiles in a coy way and bats her eyes at these comments. Then she becomes more serious and says, “No, no, no… I don’t know why they gave me flowers”. Of course we don’t let it die because that’s also what we do. Eventually she just ignores us both. However, she truly enjoyed those flowers. It seemed to brighten up the house, her mood, and her smile. They lasted a week or two and then it was time to throw them out.

After that, Babcia and my sister-in-law were shopping and my sis-in-law bought her flowers to replace the ones that had withered up. My mom and I call a few times a week via our Echo Shows so we can talk to and see each other… she made it a point to show me her flowers when she had them; more than once during our conversation. I saw the flowers from the guys on the roof several times during each phone call while they sat on her table. Then she showed me the flowers from my sister-in-law just as often. When those were finished, Babcia bought her own flowers and she was just as happy. In fact she was so uplifted by the flowers, it inspired me to go out and buy flowers to put on my own dining room table and I must say, I do feel the warmth of their beauty when I walk in the door and see them.

Babcia hints at the fact that she had many suitors when she was young, which isn’t surprising as she was a blonde, leggy beauty. I think she enjoyed being a little flirtatious in her youth. I think that receiving those flowers brought back memories for her and made her smile as she reminisced about days gone by. She probably thought of the day she met my dad and how she felt then. She probably thought about young love. Even now, when she talks about my dad she always mentions how good-looking he was when he was young and she gets that look in her eyes. I hate to know that she hurts from missing him, but I love that she has those warm thoughts to keep her company, along with the poems her wrote for her.

We tease Babcia now and then about maybe meeting someone new, but she just balks at the idea. She said to me, “As my sister said, I don’t need any extra slippers under my bed”. I say, “Nobody said anything about your bed, slow down. Wouldn’t you like someone to talk to or to eat with?” She makes an annoyed face at me and says, “Meh”. So she continues to fill her life with family and flowers and enjoy those things to the fullest. It’s just another example of how she can always find a bright side, how she can always manage a smile, and how she can always make us laugh. Who knows, maybe one day the flowers will come from another suitor. If not, she will enjoy them just the same because that’s what she does.