To Be, Or Not To Be. That Is The Question!

Nobody panic, I am not contemplating suicide as our good friend Hamlet.  Instead, I am referring to two exotic plants that my mother-in-law bought Brooke and I for our wedding reception.

Light yellow lines followed the contours of the veins in their broad green leaves; yet, if you were to lift up and look under the leaves, you would find a rich dark purple.  Brooke and I dreamed of placing them alongside the Faika bonsai tree that I had presented to her the day I asked her to marry me.  It seemed fitting, the engagement tree in between the marriage plants.

Alas, our dream was not meant to be.  After the wedding, our family brought our presents and plants to our apartment and left them for us.  After three days at the Grand America in SLC, we returned, excited to get decorating.  Having enjoyed my floral design class, I wanted to find our tropical plants and make sure that they would be somewhere ascetically pleasing. 

The dark apartment waited for us as we unlocked first the dead bolt and then the doorknob.  The blinds had been drawn to keep others from seeing we were not home.  Dragging as much luggage as I could, I hoisted it over the presents on the floor to our bedroom.  After a few trips we finished emptying the car.  I glanced over our living room and into the kitchen, there sat our exotic plants.  Brown and black death lined the once luscious leaves, leaving a small pocket of green along the center of a few leaves. 

Hurriedly, we watered them and placed them in some light and over the next few days, I trimmed away the dead leaves and hopped for a comeback.  Slowly, the green spread in the few living leaves; however, the purple bottom of the leaves looked a lot like the dead brown color and in a moment of sad stupor, I trimmed some of the living leaves on both plants.

Realizing what I had done, I examined the remaining leaves for healthy growth.  I spotted spots of green and even a strip down the center of a leaf.  I cared for them with the hope of a future and a prayer in my heart; to no avail.  These wonderful plants met their end just yesterday.  They are buried in a whited plastic sepulcher and will be there until the worms and insects destroy its flesh.  For these plants it is not to be.