I drove up to NJ today to meet my brother and take care of Poppy's bank business. Once we finally finished everything, a bank clerk who had not been the one to help us, came up to us to offer us her condolences. She explained that she knew our dad from his visits to the bank. She then showed us this plant on her desk and told us that he gave it to her. It was just a small clipping when he brought it in and as she said - she just waters it and it continues to grow. I was so touched by the fact that she sought us out to share this with us. My dad was always giving people clippings of plants. He rooted a few shoots of a hedge that was in the yard of the house I grew up in that is now a full hedge in our yard today... I am not much of an indoor house plant person - I don't have the green thumb that my father had, but I have plants on my front porch that he potted for me years ago...and I look forward to every spring when they come back. But my dad didn't just give plants to me. He shared them with family, neighbors, friends, and apparently even bank tellers.... When you think about it, there is a small piece of my dad living on in all of those plants. Small reminders of the man he was. A man who enjoyed using his hands and making things grow. A man who liked to share that joy with others. A man who in his small ways made the world more beautiful. I will never not be sad that he is gone...but I surely know he won't be forgotten - there are pieces of his memory everywhere.
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