Flowers for Mum

Mum loved flowers. When she died in the summer I knew that I wanted to arrange at least some of the flowers for her funeral and wake. It was an enormously therapeutic thing to do the evening before her funeral. It took time and focus and enabled me to be by myself for a while to mentally prepare for the day ahead. I needed to pay tribute to the brave, loving woman who had left a close-knit family behind and who had helped shape her two daughters and three grandchildren into the equally strong, caring and compassionate people that I hope we are.

I remember quite clearly the time when she worked at Pickles & Co. creating her own dried flower arrangements and I used to love doing them with her in holidays as presents for my friends. I hadn't really done anything since and I know that a professional would have done a much better job but these flowers were arranged with so much love and I know they would have meant a lot to Mum. This first one would have been her favourite...