Although she can’t remember where she got it, Gabrellen Pfarr has built an undeniable connection to the large philodendron plant she has been growing in her Lancaster city apartment for the past 10 years.

Held up by string from the ceiling and walls, the vine has turned into a thick bunch at least a foot wide and about 15 feet long.

“When people walk into the room, the plant is the first thing they notice,” Pfarr, 83, said. “It’s pretty big.”

But the plant she has nurtured lovingly for a decade needs a new home, and Pfarr is looking for someone to provide it.

Gabrellen Pfarr “It's a beautiful plant. I want it to go to someone who can continue to take care of it.”

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Pfarr has cancer, and, after deciding not to pursue further treatment, said she has a few months to live. She said her husband, Richard, 84, will most likely move in with family in the area after she dies.

“That is why we need to pass the plant onto someone who can take care of it,” she said, explaining that her local family do not have the room and light needed to house the plant.

Starting along the window in the kitchen, the plant, which Pfarr has wound over and over again as it grew, winds up and across the adjacent wall to make its way along the arch separating the kitchen from the living room.

“I (don’t have a) green thumb and these philodendron grow with no problem,” she said, “I have plant food and I put just a pinch of that in — and water.”

Formerly an art teacher in Lancaster, Pfarr is an art lover who became an educator because “there are never enough art teachers.” One of her pieces hangs in the common room of her apartment building on North Prince Street.

Of her philodendron she said, “It’s a beautiful plant. I want it to go to someone who can continue to take care of it.”