And the word is... Flowers

So in Granny's tribute blog, I was going to post pictures of the flowers I did for the funeral, but decided not to take away from the good stories of Elvis, her life, my love for her, and my love for that mmmm mmm mmm rice pudding!!

Well, I may not have that dang rice pudding recipe down yet, but one thing I can do is arrange flowers. It was always a tradition that for every holiday and birthday, or any other gathering for that matter, I would make Granny a special arrangement of flowers. And since my family members, especially Granny, like/liked to take frequent trips to this little resort called the hospital, I would also bring flowers there too, just to brighten up the room a little. Unfortunately, Granny was in ICU and couldn't have them this time... but I did draw her a nice bouquet of childish looking lines that resembled a bouquet. I told the nurse she wasn't allowed to erase those flowers because I had already given them to Granny. Luckily for that nurse, she was smart and listened to me. :]  I had always promised Granny that I would keep making her flowers and we even talked about what flowers I would do for her funeral. I would always joke with her that I would make a life-sized Elvis silhouette out of flowers, or make his face or something like that. She would just giggle then proceed to slap me across the arm and tell me that I better not have Elvis there or she'd come back and haunt me. But did I ever listen to her anyways? Nah! For the funeral, I made two sprays (those are the things you see that stand up on an easel-looking thing.... sorry for the florist lingo), one from us grand and great-grandkids, and one just from me. Lemme tell you about them....

The flower arrangement from us grands and greatgrands was, in my opinion, kind of standard. Even still, it had a lot of thought behind it. When I went to the wholesale floral market where I buy my flowers, they had a beautiful cross made from various Christmas greens. I got this cross and with the help of another very important grand, added to it a couple white roses, red roses, and white Fuji mums. Now, the Fuji mum may be a standard flower for funerals, but I never would have used it except a few years back, I made Granny an arrangement when she went in the hospital. Her favorite colors were blue and yellow... so I did yellow roses and white Fujis in a blue vase. She talked about that thing for the longest time and always said how much she loved those firework flowers. So I promised I'd have them at her funeral. Anyways... that was the one a few of us grands and greats went in on.

Then... there was mine. Nobody could help me. Nobody could see it. Nobody could even suggest anything. It was mine. So here's how it breaks down. When picking a shape, I finally decided on a circle. Why? Because to would represent the tens... of thousands... of broaches Granny had. She was always always dressed to the nines and 99.999% of the time wore a broach to match. Hmmm, but what flowers and colors to use? DUH! I didn't even have to think about that one. Her favorite color ever was blue. Like I said, another favorite flower was the Fuji. So here's how it went down: I used blue Delphinium, white Fujis, and white roses on a circle wreath I covered in more Christmas greens. The blue also represented two Elvis songs: 1) "Blue Suede Shoes" because it was our song and 2) "Blue Christmas" because it says "you'll be doing alright with your Christmas of white, but I'll have a blue blue blue blue Christmas". Ironically on that point, it hasn't snowed on Christmas day in years upon years back in Chesapeake. This Christmas, when I told Granny she'd get the white Christmas we always wanted, it started to snow Christmas night.... and didn't stop.... until over 13"had fallen at my house. (Of course... this also caused the visitation to be cancelled, as well as pushing back the funeral to the afternoon, and ultimately forcing us to wait over a week to bury Granny.... but as usual, I digress. Back to colors now...). So the blue and white had many different roles. Lastly, I like to personalize my work. The last arrangement I made Granny was with white Fujis painted blue, with butterflies landing on the curly willow. I took inspiration from that and decided that butterflies, symbolizing peace and tranquility, would play a pivotal role in this arrangement. Many times, you will see a ribbon or something hanging across the center of an arrangement. Well I don't do things like that... I decided I would have a flock of butterflies instead. So, I went all around town to find the blue butterflies I liked and created the illusion of them flying across the arrangement. Then, at the very top, slightly separated from the pack, I put three white ones. The many blue butterflies represented all of the family and friends who remain here on earth, without our loved ones. The three white butterflies represented my Granny, my Aunt Gloria, and Uncle Marvin, who are now our angels above. The pictures below really don't do these arrangements justice (or my photo shopping skills for that matter!), but I only have a couple quick snapshots of them. Whether the photography skill is there or not can be debated. The thing I care about it sharing with you all these two precious arrangements.

It's funny to think... I never truly planned on having an Elvis inspired arrangement for Granny... welp! There ya go! And in case you're wondering, she hasn't held up her threat and come to haunt me.... yet.

(Did I forget to mention that since the snow postponed everything, my flowers froze? Yeah... I pulled them out of the fridge to arrange them and the water was ice. Ugh)

It was so therapeutic to do these for Granny and the family... I encourage you all to remember, in times like funerals, go the extra mile, personalize things a bit. Your loved one will not know you did it, but you will. It helped me to do it, so maybe the same will happen for you.