Aunt Pauline and the "Sweet Magnolias"

Aunt Pauline's front porch was shaded by the huge Magnolia tree which daddy had planted for her years earlier.  (He got it from a cutting off Uncle Jesse's tree).  The limbs were close to the ground, and when the grownups weren't looking, we would kick off our shoes and climb all the way to the top, carefully avoiding the big white flowers.   Aunt Pauline would cut some of the blooms and float them in the old washstand by the spare bed when she knew company was coming.  The sweet citrus scent would waft throughout the house creating a warm, pleasant, and inviting atmosphere.  In the beginning (for a long time after it got grown), that big old tree just wouldn't  bloom,  and daddy thought maybe it never would.  Then, the first spring after Uncle Jesse died,  lo and behold, there was one bloom at the very top!  The next year there were so many flowers, it weighed the tree down.  We all said it was Uncle Jesse sending Aunt Pauline "Sweet Magnolias".