The benefits of sympathy flowers got attention recently in an article on FuneralWire.com. "Flowers are a tremendous gift," said the article's author, Kim Stacey, to E-Brief editors. "This article was from the heart."

In the article, "Avoiding Confusion," Stacey, who also has a funeral services marketing business, began by discussing the phrase "in lieu of." "This is, by its very nature, exclusionary, limiting people's sympathy choices to only one thing: the donation instead of the flowers," Stacey writes.

She goes on to discuss the value of sympathy flowers. "It is my strong opinion that flowers are a tangible means of showing concern, affection and sympathy for the bereaved," says Stacey, who trained as an anthropologist and has studied death rituals around the world. "Traditions speak," she told E-Brief editors. "Flowers have long been a part of the process of grieving, going back to ancient Egypt and even beyond."

In the article, she also cites SAF's "The Role of Flowers in the Bereavement Process" 1990 study, jointly funded by the American Floral Endowment and the Society of American Florists Information Committee, stating that "more than half of the bereaved surveyed strongly agree that flowers were a critical component of the funeral ritual that helped them deal with their grief."

In addition, Stacey refers to SAF member H. Clay Atchison III's, president of McAdams Floral in Victoria, Texas, Web site, www.inlieuofflowers.info, as a source. (Floral Management reported on this Web site in its August issue).

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

Previous Article    Next Article