Funeral Flowers

The same weekend my grandmother turned ninety-three, her best friend of seventy-four years died. Although her death was not unexpected, and was in some ways a blessing, of course it was still a sorrow. Strange to have both events going on at once. My recurring houseguest Elyse came for the funeral, since she's the granddaughter. During the service I was marvelling at a friendship that has been passed down through three generations.

Elyse and her family only stayed three days, since they had to get back for school. She very sweetly gave me several large floral arrangements that weren't used at the graveside. The flowers themselves were beautiful, but the arrangements were very institutional and, frankly, had sad connotations. So in order to enjoy the flowers, make them friendlier and homier, I took them apart.

I started with two of these:


The first step was to discard all the filler, such a ferns, statice, baby's breath. Then I grouped the flowers by color. I collected all the whites for a bouquet for my bedroom:


Then all the pale pinks (love those stargazers) on the living room table:


And all the rich pinks and reds together in the kitchen:


Lovely.