Madeline had a plant she always kept right outside the front door in a huge pot. She took such great care of it. She would have me bring it in during part of the year. She always monitored my coming and going with it to be sure I didn’t knock any leaves off of it. She was very particular about that Schefflera. It was about 4 feet tall, therefore it required a large pot which was really heavy.

She said something to me one day that I didn’t take real kindly to and rushed out the front door. I know that’s hard to believe that I would ever fly off the handle about anything.

As I walked past her favorite plant, I gave it a hard karate chop and sheared several limbs off of one side of it, leaving it looking pitiful.

As she was aghast that I’d torn out of the house the way I had and followed me the door, therefore saw me savage her plant. I turned and saw the look of disbelief on her face. I didn’t know that the plant wasn’t really a tree and the limbs would snap off at the trunk so easily.

I immediately calmed my little self down and started apologizing. I went inside and got thread and tape and came out to attempt reattaching the limbs, as in a grafting type procedure. It looked fairly normal for a little while but by the next day or so the limbs and leaves were turning from a beautiful green to brown.

That incident has served us well for the past 40 years, when I get a little angry about something, one of us just has to mention the Schefflera and then we will each smile and it all gets better real soon.

The other great thing was I didn’t have to keep moving that stupid plant in and out of the house all the time.