Poinsettias

Poinsettias.

Right before Christmas Chuck and I visited the grave sites of his mother, and my mother and father. Our journey took us to three different cemeteries. At each one we left a small, red poinsettia plant. 

The poinsettias were actually a raffle prize won at my retired teachers' Christmas luncheon early in December. I was lucky to be enjoying the company of three former co-workers who had all purchased raffle tickets. To be honest it had kind of slipped my mind, and I had not purchased any. 

As they started calling out numbers each one of my friends handed me a raffle ticket when they noticed I didn't have any. I kiddingly said that if I won I was going to give the prize to whoever owned the ticket first. As it turned out all three of my friends won prizes in the raffle. At that point they handed me all their extra tickets. Remarkably the next number called was mine. What were the chances that all four of us would win?

As I made my way up to the front the remaining prize was three small poinsettias. I actually was quite pleased because I was needing something festive for my back porch, and knew that at the end of the season I would not have to find a place to store them. 

They decorated my patio for three weeks during the day, and I would lovingly bring them in at night so they wouldn't freeze. Right before Christmas, which was the tenth anniversary of my mother-in-law's death, we made plans to visit her grave. I suggested bringing one of the poinsettias. 

Since the National Cementary was just down the road from Chuck's mother's grave we decided we would check out the Wreaths Around America that had been laid at Dad's grave. Chuck said why not bring another poinsettia for Dad? 

At this point it only made sense to drive a few more miles down the road to my mother's gravesite to drop off the third poinsettia. I couldn't help but smile at the journey of these three little plants. They began as table decorations on our table, became mine only through the generosity of my friends, added a festive touch throughout the month of December, and found their home at the grave sites of our parents. 

It was a beautiful day, and the perfect opportunity to rehome our festive little plants one final time.