My family tree

My mother's family is from Pensacola, Florida. One branch came here from Yugoslavia, specifically the island of Brac in the Adriatic Sea.   

Brac, Croatia- I wouldn't want to leave either!

Two brothers well up the family tree came to the US in the early 1900's to escape World War One.  The island, part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, was not a safe place to be at the time.  They left their father, Jacov Biskupovic, behind.  As time went by they persuaded the old man to leave his garden and emigrate to Florida.  He came rather reluctantly and brought twigs from an old fig tree to his new home.  I always picture him slightly bent, stoically clutching his branches as he crossed the Atlantic on a ship much like the Titanic. 

He planted his tree in Pensacola where it has given birth to innumerable offspring!  Each of the trees lives in a garden I know and love.


Gramma's lived by the ocean in Florida. One went to an aunt in Connecticut  where I picture a pot on her back patio overlooking an expansive green lawn and a rose garden . My mother's lives in her warm, jungly Georgia garden; my sister's in pots behind her little yellow house. 


I took my own to a sunny yard in North Carolina where it grew over a sprinkler head by the front door.  I left it behind when I moved to California years ago.  


But the tree has caught up with me!  My sister, mother and niece just sent me two clippings which now live in beautiful new pots by my studio door.


They represent a connection to my past and the love my family has for tilling the earth.  We all live with dirt under our fingernails!

One of the cuttings is on the left

Here it is now...