Because people will go to great lengths for the right to care for and appreciate you.
Peonies are one of the many beautiful things that grow stupendously well in the Pacific Northwest. They are also Rene's (esthetician, electrologist, owner) favorite flower and when we closed on the building at 9015 E Mill Plain Blvd we squealed with excitement because in addition to getting a site for our Day Spa, we also got a site with lots of mature peony bushes. Seriously--it was thrilling, we made plans for our parking lot around the peonies, we also transplanted everything we were going to pave over, peony and non-peony alike. However the peonies were only briefly ours, then came "the family."
Which explains why, during our development project, when a person politely knocked on our door and asked if they could have "some peonies their Mom planted when they were kids" we didn't dismiss the request out of hand. We did however, dismiss it eventually, the request didn't come from the previous owner of the property, rather from a member of a family who had owned the property some time ago. When we explained that the peonies were in good hands and we were going to keep them, but they could have some cuttings, the person sighed, warned us of other members of "the family" who might not agree with the decision and then left.
We made a trip out to Adelman's Peony Farms shortly after someone, who arrived by night, dug up all our peony bushes here at the Spa. Our consolation was that whoever did it had strong feelings for them and would likely take good care of them (though part of me feels they are with Luca Brasi now, sleeping with the fishes). Still we were robbed and felt the loss intensely. We've since planted peonies from Adelman's and some other beautiful favorites like double-weeping cherry trees and mondo grass, but we know it's only a matter of time before "the family" returns for us too. Remember Michael, whoever comes to you at the funeral to broker the peace, he's the traitor...he's the traitor.