94-year-old wants poinsettia back

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This article was published 15/12/2020 (1753 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Irene Armitage misses her poinsettia.

The 94-year-old Hamiota woman has taken care of this popular holiday plant every year for at least five decades, but this month brought an abrupt end to the tradition.

As of Dec. 8, Prairie Mountain Health declared the plants — a staple of Christmas for many — were no longer allowed in their facilities.

As a resident of Birch Lodge Personal Care Home, that meant Armitage had to send her plant home with her daughter, Debra, on Dec. 11.

Now, she wants it back.

“It’s just not fair,” she said, adding that she hopes to cause a bit of trouble for the health region over what she considers an arbitrary decision.

“This Christmas is hard enough.”

Prairie Mountain Health did not respond to The Brandon Sun’s inquiry by Monday’s deadline, but on Dec. 8 issued the following tweet:

“Please be advised that PMH Facilities can not accept poinsettia plants. These plant contain proteins similar to that found in rubber latex and can cause allergic reactions. Thank you for your understanding.”

Armitage finds this explanation dubious at best.

“Apparently if you tear a leaf off a poinsettia plant and rub it on your arm or body, you will cause an allergy,” she said. “I have no intention of pulling a leaf off my poinsettia and rubbing it on my body.”

As a resident of a personal care home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Armitage has been confined indoors since March.

Making matters worse is that because she’s in a wheelchair, her mobility was hampered by snow several months before the pandemic even reached Manitoba, meaning she has been confined indoors for a full year.

Being disallowed her annual poinsettia has only added to her grief.

Her husband, Ivan, gave her one of the green and red shrubs every year for decades.

When he died 12 years ago, her family members carried on the tradition by giving her a plant each year. It provided difficult this year due to shopping restrictions under level read of the province’s Pandemic Response System, so she ordered her own plant for delivery from Campbell’s Flower and Gift Shop in Hamiota.

Armitage said that she is not alone in missing a poinsettia, and that fellow Birch Lodge residents asked her to be the one to beat their collective drum.

Other residents, she said, have dementia so wouldn’t necessarily remember having a poinsettia to begin with.

“But while they have the plant, they do enjoy it.”

Campbell’s Flower and Gift Shop owner Dwayne Campbell said that he heard of the poinsettia ban and that they have been in contact with Armitage about it.

While he said the decision of Prairie Mountain Health is out of their hands, they are able to offer some alternative such as artificial plants made to look like poinsettias and dwarf cypress trees, which can be made up as miniature Christmas trees.

For now, Armitage said she’s intent on fighting a ban that doesn’t make sense.

“It’s really most unfair,” she said. “I want my poinsettia back.”

Last week, CTV News reported about a poinsettia fundraiser in Winnipeg, which supplied a plant for each resident of the Bethania Mennonite Personal Care home to help cheer them up.

According to the Office for Science and Society at McGill University in Montreal, the latex produced in poinsettia plants can cause skin or eye irritation if touched.

They also note the idea the plant is toxic is a widely held myth originating from the misattributed poisoning of a child in 1919.

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB