The Mama Aloe

I spent much of my time during the last couple of years of my aunt’s life taking care of her. There was some help during the more extreme times such as her hip surgeries and other reasons that put her into the hospital. When she was home I spent a decent amount of my time providing her things to limit the time that she moved since she was in pain even with hip replacements.

I did have my tortoise for a little bit after she died which involved a good amount of care. I, unfortunately, had to give him away since my life became so unreliable especially with where I would live. I went into a time in my life where for the first time I didn’t have a person or animal to take care of.

Though this has allowed me to focus a little more on taking care of myself, I am such a caretaker. It is something that brings me joy. A couple of years back we had a family Christmas get together. One of those get-togethers where you finally see all of the family you maybe get to see once a year if that. One of the families fosters, and they had just started fostering a baby. I held this baby almost the entire time once I got handed her. If I could have I would have taken her home with me and never let go. I have an external hard drive for my photos mainly and I have a folder named favorites and the only picture in it is me with this baby.

I don’t get the ability to take care of people or things very often. I also currently live in a place where I am not allowed to have animals or I probably would have gotten a dog by now. Even more with being so isolated with the current state of our world. My aunt LOVED aloe plants which led me to love them. She had at least eight different plants. I got a few of them when she had passed. The big one or the “mama” I like to call it died. I did get emotional when I killed it (I overwatered it) since it was my aunt’s baby. If you don’t know about aloe plants they can quickly grow pups or babies. Those pups can then be replanted and become a new plant itself. Most of the plants my aunt had in her collection were from that “mama.” Though the “mama” may have died there are still parts of her in the world.

I have two plants that came from this “mama” plant. One has barely grown but still manages to have a tiny pup growing. The second plant from the “mama” has five pups some of which are bigger than the one that has barely grown. I have one I had bought from IKEA when my aunt was still alive so I could have an aloe of my very own. Now that one has two pups. I have another aloe plant I got the most recently out of my aloes, which has thick leaves different than the ones of my aunt’s plants. Counting the pups I now have twelve aloe plants that I take care of. I have a cactus that has grown wild. The cactus and the aloe with the five pups have competed with being the tallest. The aloe is quickly catching up.

These plants have given me an outlet that I need. I didn’t realize how much until I started spending so much time alone and not taking care of people and such. I look at and share some love with my plants almost daily. I talk to them (which I talk to a lot of inanimate objects because I get lonely and actually need a dog or something). They have become my babies. If I had to evacuate my house for any reason you would catch me making sure my plants were going to make it out safe too.

My plants have allowed me to appreciate the little things in life. They remind me how quickly or slowly growth can happen. They remind me that where one person is in their growth doesn’t mean where you are is wrong. The two aloe plants that came from the “mama” have drastically different growth rates. You would think if they came from the same place they would grow similar. They don’t. A lot like a family. You can come from the same place or people and how you handle things look so different.