Erika loved her husband, her garden and flowers in that order. She is from Germany and might have moved back to Germany when Del died, but she wanted to be buried with him. I am her neighbor across the alley and have been close to her especially since Del died about 5 years ago. We shared our love of our gardens and flowers. She fell at home and was found by the mailman who also checked on her. She eventually had a stroke in the nursing home, I think because she was so mad because they wouldn't let her go home. She gave me medical power of attorney when she was in the nursing home and went into hospice when it was clear that she would never regain consciousness. The sad thing is that I found her unconscious and had to convince the staff at the nursing home that she had had a stroke. She died May 5 at Gardner Home which is a beautiful peaceful home run by Hospice of the Valley. I took the picture above today, it is the lettuce in her garden. When I was over there our neighbor was trimming the dead wood out of her citrus trees. He didn't know that she had died and she didn't think he liked her very well! People are very surprising. Our mailman, bless his heart, has visited her all through her illness and he was the hero in going out of his way and finding her when he noticed that she hadn't picked up her mail.
Floyd, the mailman, called me the other day and said, "I took a watch of Erica's to get repaired and I think she would like to be buried with it. Would you go over to her house and try to find it?" Well, I went over there found the watch, her wedding ring and looked in her closet for a dress she could be buried in. I was looking through all her dresses and saw this one you see below. It is a beautiful green with a scarf and attached to it just as you see here was a hand written note that said, "funeral home". I was so touched and so was Julian. She made all her own clothes and I'm sure she made this also.
This is a picture of Erika, taken at Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner and we were really in the background so the resolution isn't very good. This past Christmas I gave her an amaryllis. She called me and invited me to come over at the first glimse of a bud, again when it started to open and several times when it was at its most beautiful. I also had one in my house which I started later than the one I gave to Erika. I was impatient with all her calls, but happy to share her joy in the flower's beauty. As it turned out mine didn't bloom at all and if I hadn't taken time to go over to see her's I would have missed everything: her joy and the flowers beauty! 
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