Sometimes You Lose One....

My one and only L. francisci was always a little...different. It was elongated and fairly bloated when I bought it, from too much water during tropical storms while it lived outside at the nursery, I think. Then it settled down, and bloomed, but kind of strangely.

Then it took 3 months to set new leaves, and when it did, there was just one pair, not two. But it seemed to be moving along, albeit, in its own way-

It was having trouble absorbing the old leaves, and was moving along more slowly than the other Lithops that were in the same part of the growth cycle. It hadn't been watered in months, and had enough sun (but not too much heat!). Then yesterday, I saw that it had rotted. Completely. Into a mass of jello-y goo. Took less than 24 hours!  I checked the roots, they were fine. Something happened when the old leaves split, bacteria or fungi got in I suppose, and it simply wasn't shrinking its outer leaves the way the others were. Very sad! It was a lovely Lithops. But sometimes, we lose one....