Had my sister Gretchen lived, she would have been fifty eight years old yesterday, April 18th.  Today at the New York Botanical Gardens, I attempted to capture her in the same genus of tree we planted in her memory: the Magnoliaceae.

She was grand and strong with a tender soul.  As my mother would say, life threw her for a loop.

Majestic as a Magnolia, she was as messy as the tree could be: one minute in fleshy glory, the next, petals covering the ground with banana peel slickness.

A fleeting beauty in the shortest season, we love and miss you, Gretchen.