Caring
Florists share saddest messages they’ve had to write
Flowers have an almost magical ability to cheer us up even when we’re at our gloomiest. To know that someone loves us and took the time (and money) to prove it is a truly heart-warming gesture. Whether it’s to celebrate a birthday or brighten the day of a grieving friend, florists have taken to the online forum Reddit to share some of the most heart-breaking messages they’ve ever had to write.
- One former florist had a standing order for a weekly bouquet from a gentleman, who would call in with a different poem each week for his wife to go with the flowers. “One day, a woman called in with the poem. It was quite a bit different (perhaps lifted from a Hallmark card). As I filled out the order form, she explained that her father had experienced a debilitating stroke, and she would be providing the poetry from that point forward. The deliveries stopped shortly thereafter.”
- “I once saw a card in some flowers at a little boy’s gravesite (there was a photo in the headstone, he couldn't have been more than 6). Scattered around it were some of what I assume we're his favourite action figures in life, and on the card (presumably from a brother or friend), ‘I keep coming to play with you but it just isn't the same.’”
- “I am not a florist, but a few years ago, on the day before his mom's birthday, my friend ordered her flowers. On the card, he wrote something along the lines of, ‘Happy birthday, Mum! I'll love you always.’ And he died in the middle of the night. The next day, in the middle of her mourning someone came and delivered her those flowers.”
- “A young woman came in asking for lilies and rosebuds with baby's breath. My mum put it together for her and asked what she wanted on the card. The woman replied, ‘To Lily, the breath of your baby shall forever bloom, in our hearts and yours.’” She told my mum her sister's daughter died of SIDS the day before.”
- A girl of about 7 or 8 years passed away tragically, one ex-florist recalled. “The neighborhood she lived in was right across the street from my shop, and one day before the funeral all the little girl's friends came in with their parents to pick things out for the funeral. It was heart wrenching with each of these little girls and boys choosing flowers and saying what they wanted on the card. I'll never forget it.”
- “Not a florist, but I once had flowers delivered to my office and the card said, ‘I know I will never see you again but I wanted to thank you for changing my life’. I have no idea who they were from.”
- “A man paid for flowers to be left at his wife's graveside once a month. Always wrote ‘I love and miss you’ on it. Not the saddest thing to write, but just the idea of it. He always called to make sure we didn't forget, too.”
Tell us in the comments below, what’s the most thoughtful message you’ve ever received?