The Lombok creeper

I’m recovering from COVID. Am negative now, but am feeling rather battered. They tell me it will take two to three weeks before I start feeling better. I can’t wait to be rid of this not-so-great feeling. It has been a little tough on little Gamora. She’s not had her usual walks or morning ball games. I’m hoping to get back into those too. I miss doing them with her. I’ve also not managed the garden very much since the fever happened. It’s another thing I need to get back to.

I’ve been thinking about the morning I was tested. The moment the test kit showed I was positive for COVID, I started to tell the clinic attendant that I needed to protect my father. I caught myself mid-sentence, and stopped. The attendant was lovely. The clinic’s in front of my housing area and my dad wasn’t a stranger to the staff there. So he knew that his passing was fairly recent. He said something very sweet in response and to the effect that loss is hard. It was such a knee-jerk reaction on my part. These still happen when I think about my dad. 

It took about four and a half to five days before the fever broke. It was nasty. I’m certainly hoping this will be the first and the last time ever! The day it broke was a Saturday and I went outside into the garden for a bit in the morning. It was good to be outside and to feel the grass beneath my feet. I was dead excited to see that my Lombok creeper had bloomed and that a second bud was forming. The Lombok creeper, as I call it, is the clockvine creeper. 

Days before he died, my father suggested I book a holiday. My dad’s usually not insistent about things but he was quite keen for me to book a trip for myself. That is how on 20 August 2023, just three days before he died, I booked a trip to Lombok. One of my girl friends agreed to go with me. The inspiration for Lombok was from a dear friend from work who was staying with us for some days during her visit to Malaysia, who had shown me some stunning photos of Lombok. I was so pleased having made the booking. Little did I know that it would be a trip I later made to gain some respite from losing my father. My friend and I stayed at a lovely hotel in Lombok, and everything was top-notch- from the service to the serenity of the location. We couldn’t help but be enamoured by the gorgeous flowers that were blossoming off a massive creeper over the area where we had breakfast. Before we knew it, we were on our way back to Malaysia with cuttings. Don’t ask me how we carried them through. No real attempt was made to hide anything!

I’m not much of a gardener, but I dutifully planted the Lombok creeper. There were several things about the trip that made the creeper special to me. The first was how insistent my dad had been about me booking the break, and the second was how I later found money in his drawer for the exact amount of my hotel stay. He had asked me several times how much my hotel stay was- and I had found it odd. It wasn’t something he usually did. Still – this had happened, and it made me feel connected to Lombok, to the Lombok creeper that now grows in my garden. 

The flowers from my Lombok creeper are pretty. There’s a hint of lavender on white which glistens in the sun. I know Gamora’s super curious about the plant. It’s been through a repotting and just before I was tested for COVID, I’d been trying to fend off an attack to its leaves. I think I still need to do something there. Little Gamora hasn’t tried to do anything to harm this plant. This little creature understands, I think, that the plant is special to me. When we play ball, she uses it as the point where she waits for me to throw the ball. It’s somewhere in the middle of my not so big garden, so whether I’m right at the back of the garden throwing the ball to the front or vice versa, she has set herself an advantage point. The Lombok creeper is useful to Gamora too. 

I’ve been reflecting on how the Lombok creeper and other plants have been thriving in the garden. I’ve been so thankful for how Gamora’s intuitive self has been a major blessing on the days that I burned with a fever. It’s not made missing my dad any lesser, but they’ve been things that I can thank God for. They’re simply lovely. I have also been grateful to have some super thoughtful people around with messages of concern offering help or wanting to send me things, or my cousin who came to take Gamora for a walk and to play with her. There’s been generosity at work – I had to take some days off ill. There was also a surprise visit- thankfully on a day when I later tested negative. It’s been surreal to say the least. Another host of things to thank God for. I don’t want to lose sight of that- thanking God, I mean. 

Today, I went into the garden again in the morning. I’m not even okay to water the plants just yet. But goodness, the flowers are in good stead. I looked at my Lombok creeper and was delighted to see that there are about six or seven buds of different sizes forming. I know to expect more flowers. This, even in the midst of its leaves still needing to ward off an attack. The parallel to my life feels clear – there are things that don’t always go right and there can be challenges, but along the way, by sheer grace from God, just like my Lombok creeper, there are things that flower up in my life. I am grateful to God for this.