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A FINE & LOVELY DEATH 
Clutching a seed head of Primula cusickiana
in her right hand and a small paper envelope in her left, she was found frozen.
Her wheelchair was badly dmaged by the fall of 1500 feet from the summit of
Seven Devils Mountain in Idaho. The parasail was wrapped around her body
like a silken blanket.
The
hikers lifted her from the bed of Eriogonum sphaerocephalum var.
halimioedes, a scarce species, placed her on the make-shift stretcher
and started the hike down to the river below.
Her doctor had warned her it would be dangerous to try the trip.
Her
wheelchair was getting old; the parasail was not recommended for the
elderly. Little did she care to head his warning. A new location for
Primula cusiciana had been reported here and she would not be
dissuaded. What did a doctor know of the excitment of the hunt?
As the stretcher swayed down the path, the primula seed trickled out and fell to the moist soil.
You
can see it blooming now these years later on the trail 1500 feet below
the summit, a glorious white form. She did her best - in life and death.
Herb 2013