Charlie's Rose

A clue to my tendency to dwell on the past... I'm a hopeless romantic in this regard, so difficult to toss anything with a thread of family history to it... the kids will have a real chore when time comes to sort through it all!

This is my daddy's white rose. When he died about five years ago his yard was full of beautiful rose bushes... now, I can't grow roses worth dirt but we dug up a couple of the white bushes and brought them home with us... the first year they bloomed beautifully but went downhill after that, finally the root stock took over and it only bloomed wild red roses. Last year one white bud reappeared, this year there are two nice big ones! I'd ceased to fertilize, give extra water or spray for disease... these roses should be dead by now! I can't get rid of them until they stop flowering ... certainly the white ones.

Daddy and I were estranged for over forty years. He was an alcoholic and the divorce came at a time when I was striking out on my own... shedding unnecessary baggage. However, time is full of surprises and even miracles... we eventually found each other again. He'd made a good and happy life for himself and we had a few years where we visited often before his heart gave out.

So here I have this strange and different rose bush that insists on blooming both red and white. I guess I'd better take care of it... it may be trying to tell me something...

(An aside... when Mother died the next year, the white rose was in full bloom. I took a large perfect rose, stripped it of it's thorns and placed it on her heart... there had been love between them at some point... I'm here because of it.)

So now... time off for my fun road trip to Orlando! In fact, my friends have started without me! Wait up, you guys! Will tell all later...