Thanksgiving Cactus

Almost two years ago, I visited my now-late grandmother at Christmas. While there, she gave me cuttings from two of her cacti. She told me one was a Thanksgiving and the other a Christmas cactus – the main difference being when they would bloom. Neither of them bloomed last year. This past January, Granny passed away, and I’m still dealing with the grief.

Just now I was heading out the front door when I passed the cacti and some other plants that I moved into the foyer from outside when the first cold weather threatened. One of them is preparing blooms!! It looks like fingers crossed that one of them will bloom for Thanksgiving this year!

I can never decide how I feel about spirits and the like. I had an experience with an apparition as a youngster that I still don’t know what to make of today. This year, when warm weather came, my parents had a Crepe Myrtle blooming by their back steps. Granny gave me that plant around 5 years ago to take home. I neglected it. It sat all winter in the old plastic bucket she sent it in. In the spring, the plastic disintegrated and it just took root on its own. That alone was a miracle. I still ignored it. I guess it’s just a coincidence that it burst into bloom this year? Or that, according to my Aunt, my grandmother’s yard was bursting with blooms this year?

Part of me wants to believe that these are signs from my grandmother that wherever she’s gone, she’s happy… and we’ll see her again..