The orchid bloomed for the first time this year Saturday which isn’t really news. It’s been blooming for years now. But the timing was interesting. Monica, Enedina, and Manuel just happened to be spending their first day visiting her mom’s family,  la familia Ampuero,  in Madrid when the orchid’s first flower opened.

Some background for the unfamiliar: In May, 2008, Monica’s Tio Tomas flew in from Spain to be with Monica’s mom, Herminia, the week before she died from ovarian cancer. She was just 62. During his visit he brought her an orchid and placed it at her bedside. When Herminia died, Monica became steward of the orchid and has taken care of it ever since.

I’ve attached varying degrees of sentiment to that plant over the years. There’s a definite sadness that factors into the orchid equation. Sixty-two is too young to call a lifetime. But that’s easily trumped by the joy it brings. I never felt Herminia could walk on water, but like that orchid, there was a beauty and a persistence and a grace about her.

I like that Monica’s sharing the company of her mom’s family her first day in España and the orchid’s first opened bloom was synchronous. No doubt it was simply coincidence; but it adds another tally to the joy column.