The morning glories are blooming. It's just past the Labour Day long weekend, and they started a few days ago. I got them planted late again this year, well into June. I'm hoping for a slow, gentle fall so they all get a chance to flower.

Last year, right around this time, zulu was dying. We knew, over the long weekend, when the group chat went quiet, that it wasn't a good sign. I'd kept up a a steady stream of pet pictures and other small bits of news. As the summer went on, we had fewer responses from her, and were more likely to just get an emoji back. Morning glory flowers only bloom for a day. I started sending a picture of that morning's flowers to the group chat each day. (And cat pictures. Of course.) I don't know if anyone but me really cared about the morning glories, but it felt like something tangible to hold onto.

We knew things weren't good when bell mailed to set up a time for a video chat. A few days after the long weekend, we talked to them face to face, to get the news that they were moving zulu into hospice care the next day. It would be the last time we'd hear her voice. We knew it was coming, it just all went so much more quickly than expected. She died less than three weeks later.

And now the morning glories are blooming again, and even though they're my favourite flower and not hers, I'm still going to think of her every year.