Losing a spouse is one of the hardest things a person can go through. But sometimes through grief, something can bloom. 

For one man, losing his wife at Christmas could have ruined the holidays. But it was a prize his wife had won right before her death that kept him going when grief took hold.

When Frankie Allison’s wife, Maxine, died in 1996, it was unexpected. Just days before, she had won a poinsettia in a radio contest in their home town of Nova Scotia, Canada. Poinsettias are Christmas plants native to Mexico that typically only last during the winter holidays, a few months at best, CBC News reported.

From left, Maxine and Frankie Allison. Photo by CBC News.

But for more than 26 years now, Allison has kept the plant growing in a show of love for his late wife.

“(Christmas) would be different if she was here. We could celebrate, ‘Look at the poinsettia we got,’ but I live with it,” Allison said to CBC News.

I’m a Christian man, so I said, ‘Well, that’s God’s work. We can’t do nothing about that.’”

When Allison was first interviewed in 2016, he got a phone call from someone in Texas. The woman, Allison said, told him “‘I thought we grow the biggest things in Texas … but you’ve got the biggest poinsettia for being inside.’”

Allison’s plant is still going strong after 26 years. It is more than 5 feet tall, and 14 feet around. It takes center stage in the family’s living room. 

“Halifax Seed says this is a rare one because the rest of them don’t last,” he said, adding that he doesn’t do anything special to keep the plant growing. Just a bit of soil and water a few times weekly.

Frankie Allison waters his late wife’s poinsettia plant. Photo by CBC News.

Niki Jabbour, a gardening expert, said Allison must be doing something right.

“I would say this is very rare in that he’s obviously given it ideal growing conditions for over two decades, so that’s certainly a big feat,” she said.

“The size of the plant, you know, he’s obviously upsized it when it needed to be in a bigger pot. He’s fertilizing it, he’s watering it properly, so I think all that is pretty rare. But if you do all that, a poinsettia definitely can last for a long time.”

The size, however, is not surprising, she said. In the wild, poinsettias can grow up to 10 feet tall, in the right conditions.

“It’s a touching story and it is surprising he’s kept it this long but … this plant is not just something that adds greenery to his home, it’s something that keeps love alive, and so I understand why he wanted to try to keep this plant going and good on him for giving it the care it needs.”

Allison said that one Christmas, the family put up a tree and put the poinsettia in a corner. “Well, we had the tree up for a couple of weeks, and then after that (the poinsettia) started to die. I guess it needed to be in the sun — in the window anyway.”

So now he decorates the plant with colorful lights and ribbon. “I don’t have to worry about [a Christmas tree],” Allison said.

Now, Allison has begun gifting pieces of the plant to his family and friends, in hopes that it will continue growing elsewhere. 

After all these years the plant, Allison said, remains a special part of his wife that he holds close.

“It means that my wife is still with me. That’s all I can say. Every time I look at it, well, it reminds me of her.”