A North Carolina mom starts a project giving flowers to widows on Valentine’s Day and now it’s becoming a movement. Ashley Manning started a florist business at the start of the pandemic. The Charlotte, North Carolina, mom of four hoped the business might give her a break from her kids and maybe bring in a little money. But her side-hustle quickly became a success and she was looking for a way to pay forward her good fortune.
With Valentine’s Day approaching, she immediately thought of her son’s teacher, who had lost her husband of 33 years in 2015. "I remembered at the beginning of the year when my son was four, she'd told me she lost her husband," Manning recalls. "I could see in her eyes she was so sad." So when V-Day 2021 rolled around, she surprised the teacher with a beautiful flower arrangement, which the teacher loved. "Afterwards she wrote me a note about how much the flowers had meant to her," Manning says. "It just sparked the idea to reach out to more widows."
Manning shared the concept on social media and asked for names of other widows in the area that might enjoy getting a bouquet, and names started pouring in - more than 120 widows were suggested. So Manning enlisted a team of volunteers and got the support of local businesses to kick in other items to accompany the flowers and a movement was started. This year, Manning and her team will give out more than 350 bouquets for Valentine’s Day and she hopes to start a nonprofit to help spread the movement across the country. "I think goodness and kindness inspires more goodness and kindness," Manning says, "and that's a really good thing."
Source: People
Photo: Getty Images