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Ora Lee Monroe is 87, frail and has Alzheimer’s disease. A year ago, she said she wanted to see her unusual houseplant, which hadn’t flowered in decades, bloom once more during her life.

Monroe got her wish Thursday when she awoke to find flowers on her night-blooming cereus.

“As long as I’ve had it, this is the first time I’ve seen it bloom,” said Monroe, standing next to the plant in her living room.

As its name implies, the plant had bloomed during the night.

“This is something that nobody sees,” she said.

Monroe wasn’t awake in the deep of night to catch the flowers in their full glory, but she seemed perfectly happy with the three spent but still beautiful white blooms that remained in the morning.

Passed down through Monroe’s family, the plant is at least 50 years old and maybe much older. Monroe got it more than 30 years ago when her mother died.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported last August on Monroe’s desire to see one more bloom.