When my mother was sick and I cared for her at home, every Saturday morning after I bathed her and gave her breakfast, I picked up my friend, the late Josie Poitier, and we went to Berkeley Florist Supply. Josie bought flowers to decorate her church altar. I bought a bunch of roses for my mom. That was our weekly ritual.
There wasn’t much for Momma to enjoy back then. She was bedridden from a stroke that left her unable to walk. She was blind in one eye, but she loved flowers and she could still see their beauty.
I decided not to wait until she was gone to shower her with flowers at her funeral. I wanted her to have them while she could still smell and enjoy them…