I've written before about my mom's plantation. After she died, I finally did what she'd wanted me to do for years--I planted them in my backyard. Okay, well, my husband planted them.
Five of my mother's plants are in the back yard, and one is in a pot in the front yard. For the most part, I leave them be. My mother had me cutting, trimming, watering, etc., but I've chosen to do what I guarantee the big plantation owners do--ignore them and let them do what they do. Occasionally, I look at them, as I did recently when my friend Robin visited. I pointed out the plant in the front yard, and we had a discussion on shade vs. sun because that pineapple plant is HUGE!
Apparently, I need to roam more often through the plantation because Jaimee and I found this...
I admit I became as giddy as a schoolgirl. It takes one pineapple two years to grow, and in the years my mother worked with pineapples, she only produced three of the fruit. I wrote about them here and here and probably a few other places. The fact that we had a pineapple growing less than a year after her death? It had to be a sign. Hope? Peace? Something!
Then, I turned to plant #2 and OMG! it too had a pineapple! Two pineapples!
But wait! As I turned--HOLY PINEAPPLE--there sprung another from a third plant. My plantation inherited from my mother had THREE fruits on three different plants--plants she'd nursed from the tops she cut off fresh fruit purchased in the grocery store. Plants she continued to baby even from a wheelchair. I got a bit weepy.
Then, I apologized to her for not bringing them home when she'd begged me to because, obviously, these babies needed my soil!
I doubt they will be ripe and ready for the anniversary of her death next month, but you can bet I will toast her dearly with a pina colada when they are--because what else do you do with pineapple?
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