Florist Sends Hundreds Of Flower Bouquets To Widows On Valentine's Day
The sweetest act of love!
@prettythings.charloette / Instagram Valentine’s Day can be a joyous holiday for some and an extremely difficult day of sorrow for others.
The day dedicated to love can be incredibly lonesome, especially for those who have tragically lost a romantic partner. Seeing all of their peers receive chocolates and flowers from their lovers and blasting their new possessions over social media makes the day even more challenging.
Thankfully, one florist decided that she wanted to ease the pain of those suffering the loss of a partner on Valentine’s Day in an incredibly heart-warming gesture that is sure to make even the coldest-hearted people choked up.
The florist delivers hundreds of flower bouquets and gift baskets to widows on Valentine’s Day.
Ashley Manning from Charlotte, North Carolina, left her job as a pharmaceutical sales rep in 2021 to become a stay-at-home mom raising her four kids.
As a side gig, Manning transformed her hobby of flower arranging into a business called “Pretty Things” by A.E. Manning.
Before launching the business, Manning had spent years making flower bouquets for her children’s teachers and family friends who were going through difficult times.
"When I started Pretty Things by A.E. Manning, I started thinking about Valentine's Day," she told Good Morning America. "I thought, I have a platform now to maybe involve more people."
Recruiting volunteers on her Instagram page, Manning proposed her idea of sending flowers to widows on Valentine’s Day using donation money from customers. She dubbed her idea the “Valentine’s Day Widow Outreach Project.”
In just a few hours of sharing her post, Manning says she received hundreds of dollars in donations and the names of dozens of widows who were suggested by followers.
On February 14, 2021, 121 widows and two widowers were surprised with a flower bouquet gift bag and a note that read, "There's never been a moment you were forgotten,” which are the lyrics from the song “Rescue” by Lauren Daigle.
Manning was floored by the kindness demonstrated by those who helped make her wish to happen.
“We came together to serve. We came together to show kindness and love to women who have lost their husbands, to ensure them that they are not forgotten,” she shared in an Instagram post. “Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart!”
Widows revealed how Manning’s actions made their day.
One of those widows was Jordan Meggs, who was experiencing her first Valentine’s Day since losing her husband to colon cancer on February 21, 2020.
Meggs was 37 weeks pregnant with their first child at the time.
"I wasn’t expecting it, and I was shocked and so surprised by such a sweet thing," Meggs said of the flower arrangement and gift bag.
"Before, I never thought of what widows are doing on Valentine’s Day, but it’s just in Ashley to think of others all the time. It’s just who she is."
The following year, Mannings raised over $22,000 in donations to compose flower arrangements and was able to gift them to over 400 widows on Valentine’s Day.
"It just kind of snowballed, but it's a neat thing to see a good thing snowball," she said. "They say misery loves company, but I think happiness loves company, too."
Mannings had since launched her idea into a non-profit organization called “The Valentine’s Day Widow Project.”
She has received hundreds of messages from widows thanking her and expressing their endless gratitude for her efforts.
"The most important thing that I've learned through this whole outreach is that when you feel that tug on your heart for whatever it is, because this world is full of things that are sad and hard and there are people that are aching every day, when you feel that nudge, actually listen to it,” she encourages.
"Whether it's widows or widowers or if it's military spouses, or whatever it is that tugs at your heart, you just listen to it and act on it, and the reward is far greater."
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.