17/04/2026
This morning I looked out onto the garden and saw three stunning bromeliad flowers which has prompted this post.
In October 2014, one of my brothers ended his life. As a talented and creative soul, he had a love for bromeliads and other sculptural plants. Years before, he had given a bromeliad to the mother of his partner. The plant stayed in her garden for years without ever flowering. The day after we were notified of his death, the bromeliad he had gifted his partner's mother flowered for the first time. Her instant reaction to this was, 'There's Matthew, showing himself to us in another form.'
Humans are good at creating narratives around wonders of the world and other events. Innately we attach a meaning to phenomena in an attempt to understand something bigger than us, something beyond our mortal boundaries.
When I heard that the bromeliad had flowered after Matthew's death, I too believed that it was Matthew showing himself to us. I also had a similar experience with a friend's father who grew Dahlias. I had associated the flower with Pat, a keen gardener. A few years before his death I had planted Dahlia tubers that had never flowered. When he died, they flowered. Is it Pat showing himself to me or just chance?
Immediately after my father took his last breath in October 2008, I looked out the window of the room he was in and saw a very large monitor lizard that I had not seen in the ground of the hospital before until that moment. It looked up at me at the same time I looked out the window and then walked off slowly. My father's spirit, or a monitor who happened to be there at that time?
As a person who notices what's happening around me more so than the average person, I recognise my response to events rather than impose a meaning.
Does it matter what we believe about events that we cannot prove or explain?
What we hold in our heart and mind is a person's business. I only hope what is held is not harmful to a person.
Today in my garden, I looked out at 3 magnificent bromeliad centurions, and of course I thought of Matthew, and that's a good thing. Nature lives on in various forms; that's science. Our loved ones live on in various forms; that's nature.
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