I can still hear my mother’s voice calling out to me from my distant past, as a girl in South India. ‘Look! Look!’ at every turn. As we had moved to India from Concord, New Hampshire, needless to say, that among other things, the vegetation was, was, like landing in Oz. But amongst the coconut palms and giant tree ferns and sugar cane and vast tea plantations and jasmine and roses, of all the trees and flowers in the land, the jacaranda, dripping with lush purple blooms and wafting bee-buzzing scent, was by far, to me, the fairest in the land.
Decades later, four, to be exact, I pulled up my east coast stakes in pursuit of a heart driven dream, and moved to California. I arrived in early spring and every morning woke up in awe of the blue skies, ocean breezes and trees dripping with avocados and lemons. And then, in mid May, to my soul’s delight and surprise, the long lost and almost forgotten, familiar purple blossoms burst into bloom and lined street after street…and I could hear my mother’s voice ‘Look! Look!’.
My mother had had a serious stroke five years before I left New York, and her ability to articulate was compromised, however, every morning, I called her and we spoke for an hour. She would pick up the phone and in a garbled voice, say “Good morning, Francie! How are you today?” And joy on this morning, when I said ‘Mom! You won’t believe it! Jacarandas live in LA! They’re everywhere! They’re absolutely everywhere! Close your eyes and imagine and I shall send you some right now”. And Mom answered, in perfect diction, ‘Oh my! Thank you, my darling, they just arrived, and they are as beautiful as ever!’
It’s Jacaranda time right now…magical and real. ’Mom! Look! Look! Can you see them from up there? I’ll send you some right now!’
I can feel her smile.