Inheriting Plants

Going to my FIL’s house to go through my MIL’s things has not been the highlight of the summer, but my FIL would rather purge everything now. It’s helping him heal and we need to organize her things some time anyway, but that doesn’t make it easier.

My MIL was always the gardener and my FIL let us know he planned to get  rid of everything because he is not interested in plants, cannot keep up with the watering, and is pretty sure he would kill everything. We tried to organize a transport van in June to pick everything up, but the reservation was messed up, so we planned to do it after Luxembourg in what had to be the hottest week of the summer.

While the boys loaded the van, I stayed in the hot house and finished going through clothing, makeup, and jewelry. Below you see my sweaty face… just imagine trying on clothing in a house without AC in the high 90s. Melting!! While clothes are easy for the boys to let go, it made me sad to go through them. They all still smell like her. I can see why my FIL doesn’t want them around anymore. I saved a bunch of her scarves and now I have a lot of clothes to go through at home.

Also pinned up in the office on her wardrobe was a photo of my family from Christmas 2012. With family being so important to my MIL, she made it a priority to write down all of their names so she could learn all the names of my siblings and their spouses. It was just another sign of how much this woman truly loved and valued her family, whether it was in Switzerland, Brazil, or the US.

Back outside, the transport van didn’t have AC either and the fans were kind of broken. I was really just dreaming about jumping in lake Zurich, but we managed to transport this huge lot of plants home.The hard part was then moving them from the van to the flat, up the lift, and out onto the balcony. Kay was sweating bucket loads by the time we finished.Almost this whole line of plants were my MIL’s. She had so many! And they are gorgeous.It feels great to fill up the balcony with some pots finally, but I’m sad about the way in which we came about all the plants.

I can’t help wanting to show my MIL how the plants look here. She loved looking through my garden and seeing what I did differently. I hope I can keep her plants for awhile without doing them harm. They are so different than what I plant myself!

One thought on “Inheriting Plants”

  1. That photo with the names… what a sweet lady. So sorry for your loss. It will be a nice way to remember her by caring for her plants.

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