From Word To Word

My late father-in-law’s peonies bloomed this morning. They were his favourite flower. His front lawn was always centred by a tremendously large speciman that was famous in the neighbourhood. After he died and my mother-in-law came to live with us, she took two clumps of the legendary front lawn peony with her and planted them in my back yard. This was their first spring at our place, and we were warned that, though they transplant well, they do not often bloom for the first year or two in their new location. I was worried that they would not even survive, but very early on in the spring we saw shoots, and several days ago we saw some blossoms, and today there were blooms.

I am tempted to say something here about the work of mourning and of memorial, but everything seems a little inadequate. I will only say that we miss Willie, and we are glad for the reminder of him.