Liljekonvall is the flower of Østfold, the fylke (county?)
Moss is part of.
My mother and I spotted one in the forest near
Framnes today.
It was special for my mother who told me that on
Mother's Day in Sweden where she grew up,
she and her siblings would pick Lilies of the Valley
and other wild flowers the evening before and bind
them together in a long row.
During the night, the flowers were kept out in the grass
and my mother still remembers the excitement of
keeping this a secret from their mother.
In the morning the children would fetch the flowers,
still wet with morning dew, enter my grandmother's
bedroom, place two chairs in front of her bed and
drape the flower arrangement over those two chairs.
Then they would serve her coffee on the bed.
That was one day in the year my grandmother
was not the first to get out of bed in the morning,
but dutifully had to stay there till her children had
celebrated her.
Mother's Day in Sweden is celebrated on the last
Sunday of May, meaning it was last Sunday May 30th.
My grandmother was born 110 years ago, so the
wonderful smell of the Lilies of the Valley is
one way to remember her.
No comments:
Post a Comment