Early next week, a few days before Christmas, is the 82nd anniversary of my parents' quiet wedding during the War, when my mother's grandmother gave her this plant. It has bloomed every year since, always just in time for the anniversary, something my mother liked to point out.

A good number of her human descendants have a descendant, or rather a clone, of the plant. Every few years I pass out a couple of slips, started in little pots, ready to start new lives with younger relatives. I'm not ready to pass along the great-grandmother plant yet, but I have eventually to do so. :)

This flower is on that great-grandmother plant this afternoon. The plant is a bit scrawny for its age, but it keeps on pushing out the blooms.