What a lovely story behind your houseplant and a great reason to keep it growing. This type of philodendron is easy to start from cuttings and the long tendrils are air roots trying to find a place to grab onto some soil and keep growing. You can cut this tall plant down to one third of it's size, repot it onto fresh soil and add some Osmocote fertilizer worked into the top inch of the new potting soil. It will soon sprout new leaves for a fresh new look. You can also root some of the branches you cut off the mother plant by placing the cut stems into a vase of water then potting them up once you see roots form. Just snip off any leaves that will be under water as the new roots will sprout at the site of the leaf nodes. Maybe you want to start a whole colony of new plants from the main plant and give them away to family members as a memorial. Keep growing, Marianne Binetti