Monday, April 24, 2006

Scilla's Serendipity



Last week on one of my walks, I discovered this delightful blue flower in a neighborhood cemetery here in our Hannover neck of the woods. Not having a clue what it was, I snapped several photos to show later to Uschi, our landlady.

Then I started concentrating on all the gravestones that looked exactly alike. Hundreds of them side-by-side in rows. Some were so weathered you couldn't see any engravings at all. The ones I could see were in an Old English script hard to read. But I could at least see the dates, most of which ended in the 1913-15 range.


So, of course, I jumped to conclusions and just assumed these were gravestones of soldiers who had died in WWI. Made sense to me!

Wrong! But that's getting ahead of my story.





Shortly after returning to the apartment from my walk, Uschi rang the doorbell with a CD in her hand. "I want you to see some photos of SCILLA," she said. They had recently visited one of Hannover's larger cemeteries over by the train station and saw the lawns covered with these tiny blue flowers: Scilla, a perennial herb in the hyacinth family. She was so excited about them she wanted me to go see them. So then I said, "I think I may have just taken pictures of them myself at the cemetery down the street. Are they these?" And I got out my camera (I hadn't even uploaded them yet onto the laptop!) and showed her my photos. YES. Scilla!

And then she explained to me that all those gravestones were for deaconess women who were employed at Hannover's Henrietten Stift hospital and died, most at a young age. Not soldiers of the war. But lying in peace...in Scilla.

Scilla everywhere, strutting their stuff on Uschi's camera and mine. Scilla in her cemetery; Scilla in mine. I swear, that was one happy Scilla flower, just wanting to be discovered and shared!


Photo courtesy of Uschi, our landlady.

19 comments:

  1. Is Bogger having publishing problems??? The duplicate post below is NOT on my editing site, so how can it be "here?"

    Anyway, don't even go there. This is the correct post :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Ginnie! Yes, blogger is having commenting and publishing problems today, I think.

    Aren't those flowers just beautiful! I believe they had some sort of festival dedicated to them a few weeks ago.

    ReplyDelete
  3. yes problems since 9pm last night pacific time (plus 9 hours). It's still having trouble...

    And I love the flowers! Especially in the grass, they are so joyful and lovel... And there is sun!! Yeah.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What wonderful synchronicity! I love this story. I love scilla too. Hope blogger stops acting up!

    ReplyDelete
  5. At Oakwood Cemetary in Grand Ledge, MI, there are many such weathered old stones in the 'Old Section.' When I was negotiating Mom and Dad's stone with Bill Atkin, he informed me that a lot of old stones were marble and marble does not withstand the elements. That is why they recommend granite. If you serve in the military you can order a stone free of charge, but it will be the standard white marble stone of which we are all familar. For you to assume the stones you found were for WWI soldiers made sense to me...I would have thought so too! Interesting story, Boots, and the scilla is very nice. By the way, how old is your landlady Uschi? She sounds like a very nice woman.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Christina: This is one time I'm glad I can say it's not just me! UGH. But the flowers are there/here and that's what matters. I can definitely see why they'd have a festival in honor of them!

    ET: Joyful is a perfect word for Scilla!

    Ruth: I'm glad you used that word, Synchronicity, for this story. That's exactly what it felt like.

    John: Is that YOU! Wow. Am I ever honored to have your comment here, Bro (little bro, I might add :). You have just educated me on the difference between marble and granite gravestones. I never knew that. Uschi is 65, only 5 years older than myself. We get along famously! She knows much better English than I know German but we're constantly talking both languages to each other. How fun :) I hope you stop by again. You made my day!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beautiful! You gave me goose bumps (the good ones ;-))

    ReplyDelete
  8. Uschi's photo is sooo breathtaking!

    ReplyDelete
  9. CS: I like the good kind of goose bumps :)

    TO: You should have seen me trying to pick just one from her many!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your photos and Uschi's photo are just beautiful. Thanks for sharing the story that goes with them. I think I would have made the same assumption as you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. a beautiful carpet of blue and green. Lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love your stories so much Ginnie! And you know what? Blue flowers are rare here in Quebec... And my fav flower is blue: The blue pavot... You can find it up North (my North). Quebec is too hot (I'm not kidding) for those blue wonders! :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Tim: Thanks for your kind words. Assumptions are funny things, aren't they!

    Mr. Fab: Always the sweetheart :)

    Mad: Good word, "carpet!"

    MP: Aww, thanks to you, too. Hmmm. Wonder why blue flowers are rare in Quebec? I guess when you find them you need to makes sure you take pics of them!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Absolutely love those flowers...and Uschi's photo is wonderful!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. DW: I told Uschi today about all the comments on her photo and to go look at them. She's famous :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. I concur Traveller One, Uschi's photo is amazing- I could just swim in that field of tree trunk shadows, yellow sunlight, and purple petals. It reminds me of that Robin William's movie "What Dreams May Come," where everything is made of paint.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks to my landlady, Uschi, Paul! And thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. A nice surprise to wake up to :) How did you find me, I wonder?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh, and you, too, Rachel! How did I miss you!! And YES, it DOES remind me of What Dreams May Come. Good connection!

    ReplyDelete

Texel Island, NL, 2024: Renovations

  To be honest, I thought I had already posted about our January trip to start some renovations in Jaap's bungalow, as a gift from Astri...