2008-05-21

Floral delivery

Someone died on my street last year. I saw the makeshift shrine appear on the telephone pole the day after the car accident: flowers, photos, messages, a cross. Over the next couple of weeks the flowers died and the photos became water-stained. One day, as I waited at a bus stop across the street, I saw a Volkswagen beetle with a florist's logo pull up beside the telephone pole. The driver got out with a delivery of fresh flowers. I saw him stop and look at the address on the label, then at the telephone pole, and again at the label. He'd been asked to deliver flowers to a telephone pole.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

that's got to be one of the oddest places for the delivery guy.

arlene,
University Place flowers

Darren said...

That is indeed strange. I've no objection to roadside shrines (even ones with crosses)... the death of loved ones is painful and I'll not criticize the ways that others choose to mark it (and a roadside reminder to drive more carefully never hurts)....but you'd think that it would be a little more meaningful to place the flowers yourself, rather than paying a stranger to do it. It's a bit like paying someone to visit a family member's grave because you're too busy to do it yourself.

Darren said...

BTW, what's with the hyper-conservative comment review policy? Let people say what they will, and erase it afterwards if it's not up to snuff :) I like the immediate gratification of seeing myself in virtual print.

fiona-h said...

ok darren!

thinking...thinking...thinking said...

Maybe the telephone pole died.

richard said...

Could have been from a tree back in the pole's old hood, since it couldn't go to the pole in person.

I should put you on RSS - I only check in randomly, in line with your posting frequency, but then it sometimes means I miss reading you for close to a week!

Darren said...

testing... :)

Darren said...

alright!