PHILADELPHIA — The orchid cactus was always there. Its leaves, to me, appear almost like dog ears from a distance, but a closer look shows curved edges and teensy spines.
Several years ago, my grandmother explained to me that the plant came from her aunt in Virginia. Most people call my grandmom Dolores Owens. Nieces and nephews call her Aunt Dee-Dee. The aunt who raised her, Martha Blakey, called her Puddin. They're from Madison County, Virginia. My grandmother had been visiting Aunt Martha this one time in the 1960s, and her aunt gave her a cutting that she brought back to Philadelphia.
My grandmother remembers, as a young child in Banco, Virginia, her mother, Frances, nurturing and protecting her. Her mother died when she was around 6 and when her brother Frank was around 9. The doctor had diagnosed her with both tuberculosis and goiter that could end her life. When my great-grandmother transitioned, her husband had no intention of raising the kids, so Aunt Martha, a widow, adopted them. Aunt Martha brought them to her cabin in Dulaney Mountain's hollow, and cared for them alongside her children, Hazel and Lester, with the help of her mother, Rose. Her uncle Jake lived there too some years, and Aunt Martha would find ways to stretch her deceased husband's pension to feed them all.
