My First Peony

First let me say...I'm suffering what I believe to be a sinus infection and have one of those headaches that feels like it's squeezing the life out of your brain, so I hope this post sounds better than I feel....

My wonderful mother-in-law, Sybil, passed away from lung cancer in 1995. The same year my son was diagnosed with leukemia. He was 7 years old and she passed 6 weeks after his initial week in the hospital. My father-in-law, her husband, passed this last October at the age of 94. Before we moved him out of their home, at the age of 93, I dug up mom's prized peonies and transplanted them into my garden. Now, I'm transplanted here from AZ, where I lived my entire life until 2 years ago and we did not grow peonies back there, so I knew nothing about what I was doing. Imagine my surprise when I noticed I had a bud on one of the plants last week! I'm sure the neighbors heard me "screech" with delight! Then, we had a hard freeze predicted, so I carefully covered my plants and prayed they would be alright.

They were and here's the proof in the pictures....now, if I could only smell the sweetness of that bloom! Darn sinuses, anyway! Of course, the pics don't do it justice, but I'm so happy and wish that bloom could last forever. As I know, nothing does. I feel mom and dad are smiling down on me and there will be many more blooms where that one came from. Oh, in case your wondering...my son won his battle and is now 21 and moving into his first apartment at the end of the week!