Funerals - When Someone You Know Dies

The floral business for everyday occasion has slowed down because of the economy, but lately, there has been a lot of last minute orders for sympathy flowers. Some of the customers that ordered flowers were relatives who were unable to attend the service. Some of our customers after taking care of the funeral arrangements realize the very last minute that they did not take care of flowers; so they order flowers at 10 a.m. for the 12 noon service. We've dealt with a lot of funerals lately where people order on the last minute because they see that there are very few flowers. On these occasions, we do not feel very sympathetic and are very removed of any feeling except the thought of making the floral arrangement very attractive for the service in the amount of time we have to work with.

But when someone you know dies, it is very different. The initial shock and the feeling of sympathy for the loved one left behind is hard to express. Someone I barely knew died and circumstances around his death is something I can't fathom how his loved ones must have felt. The distance could have created a barrier in helping out the loved ones left behind cope with their grief and the burden of making the final funeral arrangements. One friend, a fraternity brother, volunteered to collect contributions and with his sister took care of facilitating financial help from the mainland US to the Philippines. Technology has bridged the gap, and I really appreciate that it took fraternity/sorority brothers and sisters share in the grief of the loss of a big brother, the founder of the fraternity.

The death has brought together long lost frat brothers and sisters. Thank you Manong Glen!