Life changes after losing a loved one

I called my brother, David, to wish him a happy birthday. Of course, he didn’t answer so I left a short message and hung up.
He eventually called me back and I sang Happy Birthday to him. We talked for a bit and he told me a story that confirms that he is the ultimate trash picker, um ... scavenger, I mean recycler.
It seems that his workplace was updating its landscaping. In the process they had dug up a bush and tossed it out back. After the new landscaping was completed, the bush was left behind. David asked around and nobody else wanted it.
He went home and hooked his trailer to his truck and prepared to move the shrub along with its generous rootball. He corralled several of his coworkers but no matter how many men he gathered, the bush was determined to sulk in the parking lot.
They used a winch to get it on the trailer. The thing was so heavy that the back end of the truck threatened to come off the ground. David coaxed his son, Jadyn, and one of his friends to balance out the load by riding in the truck bed.
They slowly took the back roads home. He said that people were afraid to pass them because they couldn’t see around the shrub. All the traffic could see was a bunch of leaves traveling down the road or coming over the hills at them. The bush dropped flowers along the way in case it had to find its way back to where it had come from.
After they finally arrived home, Jadyn and his friend were dismayed that they were expected to dig a hole by hand. They hooked the shrub to a car and coaxed it off the trailer. Then they headed over to David’s father-in-law for a small backhoe.
The bush is now in its new home. I asked him what it was and he said his wife, Apryl, said it was a tulip bush. I had never heard of a tulip bush and when I looked it up I found pictures of magnolia trees, tulip poplars and a brown moth so I still don’t know what kind of plant David kidnapped, I mean, saved from certain death.
We talked and laughed at each other for awhile. We confessed that we both get the urge to call Mom. He said that he thinks a flipper bought her house. They are redoing the landscape. I wondered if I should have dug up all her outdoor flowers instead of just a fraction of them. I wondered if David was going to cruise her neighborhood in search of more plants.
We talked about our brother, Michael, and his latest adventures. We talked about my daughter, Beth, and what was happening in Texas. He hadn’t known that the flooding down there had kept Beth home from work for a couple days or that the grandchildren were into sports. We caught up with each other’s lives and finally hung up.
I miss my brothers. I miss getting the family together to tell stories. We haven’t all been together since we cleaned out Mom’s house. She was the glue that held us together. Now, we are held by elastic rather than glue.
Life goes on. It changes. Changes like being dug up, forced onto a trailer and settled into a new home can be traumatic. Changes like the death of a parent leave holes in our lives. The good thing is that bushes adapt to new surroundings and we adapt to living without a loved one.
We no longer get together for birthdays. I no longer have an excuse to bake. Loss is part of life. But so is sunshine. We have lots of happy memories to sustain us. Mom is in a much better place. Perhaps David’s shrub is, too. Only time will tell.
Life goes on and so do the rescue efforts of my little brother.