A Florist Makes It Her Mission to Bring Widows Joy on Valentine’s Day

When you hand a person flowers, they smile, says Ashley Manning, a pharmaceutical rep turned florist, who started a program that gives widows flowers on Valentine’s Day.  

“It could be congratulations, it could be sorry for your loss, but it’s just such a neat thing to give somebody something and see their reaction — like a genuine reaction of gratitude,” Manning says.

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It was this bit of joy she saw time and again on the faces of those receiving flowers that got her thinking: What about all the people who don’t get to experience the happiness that comes from someone handing them a beautiful bouquet?

When the flowers stop coming

Manning, based in Charlotte, NC, says the moment she realized her “divine” mission was when she brought flowers to her son’s preschool teacher for Valentine’s Day in 2020; the teacher had lost her husband to cancer not long before. The teacher’s appreciation that someone recognized her feelings “planted a seed” with Manning to do something special specifically for widows the following year.

“You could tell how heartbroken she still was to have lost him. She just thanked me and I could tell how much it meant to her,” Manning says. “… Just being thought of on that day, like somebody acknowledging her pain.”

Widows especially suffer on Valentine’s Day because with no flowers or chocolates or whatever sign of affection they used to get, the day becomes a sad reminder of loss, Manning says.

“To see everybody around you getting flowers and gifts and chocolates and knowing your person isn’t there … that’s just a really sensitive group of people, widows.”

An overwhelming and wonderful response

After Manning started her florist shop, Pretty Things, in November 2020, she had a platform from which to launch the project. She took to Instagram to see if she could raise the funds for what she called the Valentine’s Day Widow Outreach Project and was floored by the response.

“I very organically just asked, ‘Would anybody be interested in donating to a fund that will deliver flowers to widows on Valentine’s Day?’ ... I was thinking maybe 25, 30 people, but within three weeks we had 121 widows nominated and funds to cover all of their gifts.”