Jared Diamond Books

My sister went through a tragic loss one month and two days ago. The month has gone by in a blur. It somehow simultaneously feels like it has always been this way, and that it just happened yesterday. If you’re wondering what happened, her twenty-five-year-old son died. In fact, he died unexpectedly on Mother’s Day. My beautiful nephew, her beloved son, woke up feeling ill and went back to sleep. He never woke up.

I still can’t get my head around it. How can someone so full of life be here one minute and gone the next? They became worried when he didn’t turn up to Mother’s Day lunch. It was just the worst thing in the world, and it hasn’t gotten any better a month on… not that I would expect it to.  

As soon as it happened she asked us not to buy her any pretty dwarf roses or any flowers at all, for that matter. As much as she loves flowers normally, she didn’t want people to spend money on them. Instead, she asked anyone who wanted to buy flowers to donate the money they would have spent to charity. Even in the absolute darkest moment of her life, she was still thinking about other people. She, her son and her family did not deserve this.

As her sister, I took a bit of liberty with the rule. I decided to buy her something that she could grow and look after over the long term. There were climbing roses for sale at my local farmers market the day after my nephew died. I felt like it was a sign. My sister can plant the climbing roses near a fence in her yard and look after them. She can channel all her sadness into looking after these flowers, which will grow beautiful and strong just like her son. Every time a new rose blossoms it’ll be her son saying hello and letting her know that he’s okay. 

Months ago we saw this really cheap weatherboard house for sale in a really affluent area. We thought it would be more cost-effective to snap up that property purely for the large space of land it sits on, knock down the house, and build something new. As far as the house design, we hired a builder to put that together. While in the process of building we received an objection complaint from the council which had been submitted by one of our future neighbours. We can’t be too sure of who made the complaint but I have a sneaking suspicion it might be the neighbour on our left. The other day my brother came past to drop off a few paint swatches for our interior. Apparently, the neighbour came outside in a huff and absolutely berated him for parking on the left side of the road, even though he was only stopping by for a minute. Our street has zero parking restrictions, yet this bossyboots somehow believes that they have the right to dictate who parks their car where.

To top it off, the other day this neighbour came by and totally invited himself into our home without our permission, and started critiquing every little aspect of the house. It was bizarre. Then as he left, he insulted our unfinished garden! This interaction inspired me to buy miniature roses. I have had no time to pursue a nursery to find plants suitable for our yard. Looking online meant that I could sit back in between jobs I needed to do for my home, learn about the different plants that are available, figure out whether or not they’d be suitable, and place an order.  

I ended up ordering a dozen sunflowers, some daisies, some ferns, and six David Austin roses. They’re expected to arrive very soon. Let’s hope this nosey neighbour doesn’t take issue with the postman trying to deliver me these miniature roses seeds. I wonder how the rest of the street feels about him. Surely they can’t like him, he’s a total pain.