As far as I know, Teresa Ann Mohwinkle Fitzpatrick is our family’s only drug dealer.  And she’s licensed!

Besides being a pharmacist, Teresa is the wife of my nephew Dennis, the mother of my great-niece Hannah, and a hostess who is kind to nosy visiting aunts.

Today is Teresa’s birthday.  I haven’t seen her for 10 years but I’ll never forget visiting her and Dennis in their home.

At that time, Teresa was an avid apple collector.  You wouldn’t expect a pharmacist to appreciate apples so much since they keep the doctor away.

I will always feel an affinity for her since I am a fanatic Mac user.  Anybody who loves Apples is good to the core, that’s what I always say.

I peered and poked into every room of that bungalow.  Everywhere I looked were apples.  Red ones, green, yellow, gold, silver, wooden.  Some you could even eat.  On the walls, tables, rugs, curtains, even on towels were more apples.  Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I’d reach for the light switch – designed with an apple on it.  You couldn’t walk through a room without smiling.  I’m still smiling remembering it.

In the living room was this perfect great couch.  It belonged there.  It was a like a throne inviting you to sit in the midst of a fantasy orchard of apple blossoms.

I hope the apples are still there.  I kept thinking about Teresa and Dennis when I read the first section of the book “The Botany of Desire”.  It’s about the effect on humankind of four plants — including the apple.  It’s written by a botanist with the unlikely name of Michael Pollan.  Teresa and Dennis would like his book and he would like their house.

Gwyneth Paltrow would have liked the house, too, since she named her baby “Apple”. Teresa and Dennis may have re-decorated since I was there.  After their baby made her appearance, she was named after a rose not an apple — Hannah Rose Fitzpatrick. That may mean that the house has now been re-decorated as a bed of roses.  That would be nice, too.

Have a happy birthday, Teresa.  Now put your feet up and sip a cup of hot apple cider.