Peace lilies

For me plants out in the nature are beautiful. Indoor they are invisible to me, until that is, I rented an apartment for 6 months and the couple that lived there wanted me to water the plants and keep them alive if possible. What I blurted out was the honest rather abrupt reply 'But I kill plants, always have' At which they just smiled and asked me to try.

I did try. Well, there were times they were plain invisible to me, part of the furniture and watering them never entered my mind. One of the first things my husband did when he came over for the weekends to visit me was to water the plants. And then we happened to be away for two weeks and the two peace lillies sitting happy in the living room window just died. My husband was extremely sad. He tried to coax them to live again. I felt the situation was rather strange yet touching. I have to mention that the lillies do make a tearful picture when they are dead. So, anyway he went out a few days later and bought two new peace lillies, because he felt it was the right thing to do. I ofcourse, had been saying all along that there was not any need. We tried, and two out of the five plants died. It was still a respectable remaining number for one like myself who kills plants.

In the last week of July, I vacated the apartment and moved into the hotel across the road from the apartment block according to my new arrangement with my employer. The apartment was to remain empty till the couple who lived there returned 3 weeks later. I started to adjust to the hotel life again. In the evenings, I would stare accross the road from my hotel room window and spot the peace lillies in the living room window of the apartment. I started to watch them a little everyday. By the third day I started to worry about the plants in the apartment thirsty for water. Strangely enough, I had grown attached to the lillies and the other plants in the house. It was a new feeling for me. I was quite disturbed about the plants starving for water, an occurence that never once bothered me before. Eventually, by the second week when I was at the hotel again I decided to ask my employer for the keys so I could save the plants. I went by one evening hopeful they were hanging on. The three other plants were quite sturdy and could do without water for longer, I knew. Peace lillies however are much more sensitive, and need water every 2-3 days, and I knew that too. It had been two weeks! As I unlocked the apartment I felt sad I had not come earlier. I raced down to the living room. The peace lillies were dead.