Roses for Danny

Declan and I received lovely roses at our city's Transgender Day of Remembrance event. You can still see the glorious pinks and greens of the petals. They initially looked like basic off-white flowers, and it took a few days for them to open up and display their extraordinary hues.

The event was held November 20, and I took this picture today, nearly forty days later. It's astonishing that they've held on so long. Yes, the petals are beginning to turn brown on the edges, but even so, they remain magnificent.

I marvel at their miraculousness each day, but my thoughts have intensified this week as news of another lost trans life surfaced close to home. Danny Siplin's vehicle was found empty on a bridge above the river gorge a few days before Christmas, and his remains were eventually discovered on the ground below.

I didn't have the honor of knowing Danny, and merely followed the story as it unfolded in the news and in social media. The police investigation reports no indications of foul play. Danny's family and communities have been rocked and are sorrowing. I can imagine a poster of his young face shining with a collection of others at next November's TDOR event, and it makes me want to weep.

I thought about Danny while gazing at these amazing roses, sad that it would soon be time to remove them. But then I looked closer. And this is what I saw:

The stems are sprouting.

In the window.

In the winter.

In a simple jar of water.

Their life force accepts the withering of what was once, but are still fighting, fighting against the endless threat of death.

I'm not a gardener. I putter around in my yard peering at clover and flowering weeds, whispering encouragement to bees and other pollinators. I've planted a few rose bushes across the years, but I'm not the kind of person who knows about grafting, or forced rooting, or whatever other rescue methods might be called for. But I'm going to see what I can do to continue the life that these two stems are fighting to live. I'm going to try to figure out how to help them thrive, and then dedicate them to Danny "Dusse" Siplin.

It is far from enough, this small attempt at protection. But it's one thing I can do.

Rest in power, Danny, now that you are free to be.

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Suzanne DeWitt Hall (she/they) is the author of the Where True Love Is devotional series, the Living in Hope series of books supporting the loved ones of transgender people, The Language of Bodies (Woodhall Press, 2022), and the Rumplepimple adventures.