Valentine’s Day can be a romantic and special day for many people. People love to spend their time and celebrate the affection and romance between them and their significant others. For many people, it’s the time of year they feel closest to their loved ones.
However, there are many people in the world who spend Valentine’s Day alone . Whether it’s because they are single or they are now divorced or separated, it can be challenging. But, it’s even harder when someone loses their loved one unexpectedly.
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Being a widow is something many women struggle with.
Losing your husband can be incredibly hard and sad. Some women lose their husbands unexpectedly, while others lose them after long battles with sickness and disease. It can be hard to live every day, day-to-day, without their husband. But, when Valentine’s Day comes about, it can be even harder because the day is all about romance.
Watching everyone else get flowers and chocolate can be triggering.
Seeing everyone else around you celebrate love and receive gifts, flowers, and chocolates can be triggering and make many widows sad and feel some type of way. One woman decided that this was an ongoing issue that should be faced and solved, with the love and support of other women.
Kay Decaro of Charlotte, North Carolina, has been a widow for 24 years.
One Valentine’s Day, Decaro was shocked and surprised when she had received a bouquet of flowers last year. She was confused, but also touched and moved. As it turns out, the flowers came from her 24-year-old daughter, delivered by mother-of-four, Ashley Manning.
Decaro was touched by the sentiment.
“It was just such a beautiful thought and it made me feel so special that somebody would take the time to make something so beautiful with flowers and pass it on to widows,” she told TODAY Parents.
Manning, 39, has been “a lover of flowers” since she was a young girl.
After having her children, Manning became a stay-at-home mom. She would spend her time making flower arrangements for friends and family. But, she recently thought about how widows feel on the most “romantic” day of the year, and posed a question to her followers on Instagram —
“How are we going to take care of the women in our community who aren’t going to get flowers?”
Manning said both of her grandmothers were widows.
“Both of my grandmothers were widows. My mom’s mom had 12 children and my dad’s had 8. I never met my grandfathers and they never remarried. My son’s preschool teacher had (also) lost her husband. When I heard that, my heart just broke,” she told TODAY.
Due to this, Manning wanted to use her love of flowers to support widows in her community.
After posing a “call to action,” she received dozens upon dozens of nominations.
“I just needed to know their name and address. I was just a one-person show last year,” she explained. Now, she has dozens of volunteers who help her get flowers to widows who need a little extra love on Valentine’s Day.
The entire project is also community-funded.
“The whole initiative is community-based. All of the money is raised within our community.”
The funds help pay for the flowers, the vases, and also other things that people deliver to the widows. Manning had organized 121 bouquets for widows with the help of 50 volunteers to help last year with the deliveries.
Some people deliver the flowers anonymously.
Some people like to have the flowers delivered themselves, to make the person feel that much better. However, there are others who prefer to have them delivered anonymously so that the widows can feel as though it is from their husbands.
The widows appreciate it more than they can describe.
“You think you have another 20 (or) 40 years with your spouse and all of a sudden, all the happiness was gone. I was married to him for 20 years and it wasn’t long enough.
The delivery touched my heart so deeply last year, that this year I wanted to be a volunteer. My husband would bring me flowers randomly off and on. It’s been years, but it’s still so beautiful, Decaro said to TODAY .
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