The phrase “on a wing and a prayer” has an entirely different meaning for Ruth Glover, who has been known for much of her adult life as “The Butterfly Lady.”

From an early age, Glover has raised monarch butterflies, a simple hobby and one that she shares each summer with her neighbors at Vantage House.

“Nature is a very fluid thing – there’s a lot going on out there,” said Glover, who, at age 93 has a deep and abiding respect for Mother Nature. “When you think about it, it’s amazing that it even works at all.”

That’s the beauty of raising the delicate orange and black winged creatures, she said – seeing firsthand the amazing transformation unfold before your eyes, a little bit of the wild encapsulated in a glass aquarium.

The first step to raising a monarch is gathering milkweed, said Glover. The butterflies lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves of the milkweed plant because that’s all the larvae eat. Ingesting the plant makes the caterpillars poisonous and predatory creatures “learn real quick to stay away,” said the Cambridge, Massachusetts native.

In the four years that Glover has lived in Vantage House, she has quickly learned where to find the plant, she said.

“I love to take walks and there are many wonderful places to walk through the woods and around lakes in Columbia,” said Glover, who often heads out from Vantage House’s central location in Town Center when she feels like exercising and enjoying the outdoors. “I know just where there are patches of milkweed around here.”

Once she has a milkweed branch, Glover places it in the aquarium along with extra leaves for food and a tiny bowl of water, which must be frequently refilled.

The entire process, from egg to caterpillar to butterfly, takes about four weeks, she explained, and after all these years it never fails to mesmerize her or those who witness the process taking place within the glass tank on a credenza in the Vantage House hallway. A sign is posted to point out the display to interested residents.

“A lot of people are interested in observing and everyone is excited when I set out the aquarium. I hear them whooping with delight, especially when the butterfly comes out of its chrysalis – that’s when it gets dramatic,” she explained. “It’s fascinating and you have to see it to believe it.”