Fifty years ago, our mothers’ bitter estrangement divided us daughters. But after I expressed sympathy over her mother’s death, my cousin mailed me a sprig of an aloe vera plant as a peace offering. Our shared great-grandmother had carried the original plant when she fled Lithuania for America in 1920. She gave plant cuttings to her growing family. My mother’s section died. For a while, the cutting my cousin sent me seemed like it would die, too — but then, a green shoot bloomed. My cousin and I reunited to celebrate; our branch of the family tree will regenerate. — Melanie Chartoff
Healing Family Wounds
This entry was posted in Gardening and tagged aloe vera plant, connection, estrangement, family, Family Heirlooms, Grief, healing project, house plants, love, peace offering, plant cuttings, plants, siblings, sympathy. Bookmark the permalink.
What a great story of reconnection across the generations 😌
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I agree it is a beautiful story of growth (pun intended) 🙂
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