I have sad news. Lucinda has died. But before you break out the tissues, not to mention the thoughts and prayers, I have to come clean and admit that Lucinda was a tomato plant; two tomato plants if we’re being precise but all one to me. Let’s back-peddle for a moment.
Lucinda was seeded during June 2019. Yes, very late for the season but I had a lot of work on and procrastination is my middle name. She took her own sweet time about germinating and didn’t put in a plant-like appearance until the end of August, when everything else on the balcony was ending its run. Perhaps she didn’t like the competition or the winds that sweep around our third floor apartment but she was spindly and stubborn, and growth was slow. Her first fruit appeared in early October, when I had given up hope of there ever being any and, given imminent Canadian frost, feared for her survival. As November loomed, I gave up and moved her inside, parking her beside the glass balcony door. She loved this new location and immediately grew up the bookcase behind her, flopping over at the top when she reached the ceiling.
Lucinda was a cherry tomato plant and she fruited abundantly all through the winter of 2019/20. As news of the gathering pandemic grew, she cheered us up with her bright baubles of juicy delishness. We went into lockdown a year ago this weekend. While trapped indoors for most of the six weeks, my first stop on my morning trip to the kitchen was to greet Lucinda, touch her leaves and make sure she was comfortable. In the true spirit of give and take, during those dark and dreary times, she would offer up another tiny tomato every few days.
Teetering on the Edge 
Love your Lucinda tomato plant story. Such hope in dark times certainly lifts the spirits.
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