Special Memories

On opening my lounge curtains this morning there smiling at me for the very first time was this beautiful white lily. Its a special one, given to me back in 2008 and has never flowered until today....Its for Wladiza.

Wladiza came to New Zealand as a polish refugee back in 1944, leaving Persia at 11 years old without her parents and lost her brothers and sisters along the way - it was a journey of just under five years, she came with 733 other children.

Wladiza embranced her new homeland and took great pride in learning about her new country, she grasped every opportunity that came her way.
She married and had two children and we were very fortunate to become neighbours. Wladiza's children had left home but she and her husband always had time to listen to Daughter A and Daughter E's stories of their day and enjoyed watching them grow. Often they would come over with fresh vegetables from their garden, we would talk down the drive as Wladiza would weed or hose the garden by hand on a Summer's evening. They always had Christmas lillies in their garden, so many of them that they would give them away to friends, give them to our local florist or take them to the elderly peoples home - every Christmas I was fortunate to have Wladiza and M's Christmas lillies at my front door.

Wladiza never lost hope of finding her brothers and sisters and yes the day did come where they found each other here in New Zealand.

Wladiza died in 2007 and her husband sold their red brick house with beautifully kept gardens, before he moved he brought me four lily bulbs and planted them in my garden. Two seemed to have disappeared, they never came up while the other two came up but wouldn't flower - until today.

Special memories.....for Wladiza.