Flowers For A Friend

Our daughter, MrQ and I have been to the funeral of our dear friend and next-door-neighbour. I was so grateful to our daughter for driving us there and for helping me to look after MrQ. He managed the crem but the church service and the wake would have been too much for him.

The florist, who we used to supply with flowers and who I've gone to for floral tributes in the past, has died. I decided to make one myself. I scrubbed an old basket from the shed and went to a wholesale supplier for blooms. Going into their cold-store reminded me of getting the flowers for my daughter's wedding. Flowers were in very short supply then as her wedding was the same day as Princess Diana's funeral.

I chose standard and spray carnations and alstroemeria for our neighbour's tribute as we used to grow them and she loved them. (I noticed that her family had chosen pink standard carnations for her coffin spray.) I also got some unusual spiky gerbera, veronica, freesias and eryngium.

I felt sad when I took the flowers to the house this morning, of course because our friend has died but also because it is the end of an era and change is afoot. The family will sell the substantial property. They are going to try to put a covenant on the memorial lake and oak tree so that they will be preserved.