Tales from A Flower Shop: or, why I'd like to be a fly on the wall at one particular funeral tomorrow....→[More:]

Let's see if I can make this short and sweet:

Woman walks in, with friend. She is there to purchase a funeral spray and other floral things for her fiancee, who had died (I am leaving out personal details here, natch. I will say, he'd been ill.)

We were in tears as she described how much she loved him, what a good guy he was, how they'd had true love...by the time she walked out, we were all musing on how life just isn't fair.

Fast forward to that afternoon. Two women walk in. It was obvious they weren't folks with a lot of money. The younger woman informs me her husband had just died, and proceeded to tell me about his illness. Interestingly enough the description mirrored the earlier lady. I'm thinking, dang, this is horrible. Two in one day.

She can only afford to order a few flowers in a simple but beautiful vase. (We cut her a deal, too.) She, too had me in tears, as she described the other losses the family had had recently. She introduced the other older lady with her as the aunt of the deceased.

After I finished their order, and they left, I took it in the back to be processed.

Where one of the floral designers confirmed to me that both the morning customer and the afternoon customer had bought flowers for THE SAME MAN.


Let's just say that tomorrow, in a local very well respected funeral parlor, there will be a funeral.

And for the sake of all that is holy, let us hope they have security. And I ain't talking eternal security, either, my friend.