Friday, September 25, 2015

"Where Flowers Bloom, So Does Hope"

I wanted to share some of the beautiful floral arrangements and plants our family received when my mom passed away.  We chose not to include, "in lieu of flowers..." as part of her obituary because she LOVED flowers so much.  It was obvious with the amount that were received; and this is not even everything, there were others that were delivered to the house before and after her funeral.  We heard from several people that the floral shops were recommending people order plants opposed to flowers because they had already taken orders for so many.  It was such a beautiful tribute to her. 
 Peace Plant from the company Dave works for
 Plant from the "Sunshine Club" at the school my sister works at
 Dish garden from one of my mom's dearest friends. 
She knows my mom so well; mom would've bought this herself. 
 Lovely flowers from my dear friend, Marinda.  Amazingly, I still have some of these and they look beautiful. I picked out the wilted ones but the daisies are going strong and make me smile daily. 
 Plant from my dad's mom and sisters
 Roses from one of mom's friends from Wyoming
 From the Watford City High School class of 1981
 From dad's "money guy," as we've always called him. 
 Beautiful plant from mom's sister, niece and her family.  The cardinals are perfect. 
 Beautiful plant from my mom's aunts, uncles and cousins on her mom's side of the family
 Memorial garden stone from my brother's work.
 Pretty plant from my mom's neice and nephew and their kids
 This is a beautiful bench and roses from the family of my dad's late brother, Paul. 
 Plant from some of the kindest people I have ever known, the Lewis families. 
 Gorgeous arrangement from one of mom's cousins. 
We loved the gardening gloves attached; it was the perfect touch. 
 Beautiful arrangement from one of my dad's former bosses and his wife. 
 Fall arrangement from my dad's company
 Another beautiful fall arrangement from more Wyoming friends. 
 Pretty lavender arrangement from mom's longtime friends
 Plant from Dave's Godparents and their children. 
 Plant and sun catcher from my dad's sister, her sons, and their families. 
 Gorgeous potted arrangement from Sarah's parents. 
 These are a couple things we had set up at the visitation at the funeral home. 
 My mom loved her Steelers:)
 Doug, Kaci & Dad, and my family each put together a photo board.  Each of my kids drew a picture for Grandma.  The girls did such a wonderful job and put so much thought into their pictures. Madi drew two birds (a cardinal and a woodpecker) on a tree together and wrote, "Madi + Ga" on the tree.  She always called my mom, "Ga."  Grace drew her and Grandma baking cookies.  She put them both standing against the counter (Grandma wearing a green shirt of course) and the oven next to them.  Wyatt did some lovely scribbling that we know Grandma loved. 

My parents have lived in several different places; North Dakota, Wyoming, back to North Dakota, and finally to Wisconsin.  As hard as the moves were, at times, they made some amazing friends along the way and it was apparent that my mom touched many lives on their journey.  The funeral home told us her obituary through their Facebook page was viewed over 11,000 times, when normally obituaries are viewed 1000 times or less.   They said it was the most comments they had ever seen on one of their obituaries, and it was shared 28 times from their page.  She was loved by so many people. 

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