One of the things I love to do is visit beautiful gardens. When I want to do this for free, I visit a garden center that has greenhouses. The first weekend in May, we were visiting family in our hometowns in Southern Utah. It was the weekend before Mother's Day, so I wanted to put some flowers at my mom's grave and get my mother-in-law a gift. I stopped by a garden center near my in-laws' house to spend an afternoon surrounded by beauty, and to get both Mother's Day gifts.
My mom's headstone has been ordered, but not delivered yet, so it doesn't matter what kind of flowers I found or what type of container they were in, they were still just going to have to sit out in the open. Because of that, I didn't want to get a typical pot of flowers for her grave. My stepdad and I decided to plant them at her gravesite. If the deer didn't eat them, they got enough water, and were able to put roots down into the red clay, they would be beautiful for a while. (Also, if the cemetery groundskeeper doesn't pull them out!)
In a way, it was a sweet, little, rebellious, Mother's Day ceremony for her. If it were someone else's grave, and she had been there with us, I know what she would've said. "Lana, we can't plant them, it's against the rules." She was always honest and stuck to her moral code no matter who was watching, or the circumstance. But, because she wasn't there to stop us... we did it anyway! She was one of my favorite people on Earth, so, I say SCREW THE RULES! It was really fun to do together, and I'm really thankful for this little moment that we shared.
Update: My dad shared a picture of the flowers on Memorial Day and they were still alive and still planted in that spot!
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