Memorial Peony I & II, Jamestown, NC
Memorial Weekend, 2015
A planting of this peony was brought to Salina, Kansas over 100 years ago by my wife's grandparents. We took a split of it after her grandmother's funeral and planted small splits in three homes in Kansas City and a split traveled in the back seat of our car when we moved to North Carolina.
My grandmother planted these flowering plants around family plots in cemeteries back in Kansas. She chose these plants mainly because of the impeccable timing of the blooms around Memorial Day every year. The plants are very hardy and they seem to survive without much human intervention. Like so many of us, she wanted the cold stone markers that say so little of those they identify to be decorated with some small measure of the beauty of these departed souls.
But perhaps we have things totally reversed. Could it be that these bright reminders are actually overseen by those we’re memorializing, so that when we mortals infrequently visit in quiet remembrance, the colorful blooms are there for us with a beautiful assurance that "all is well"?
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