Chris’s story

One of my favorite stories was when a woman called the Lakewood office about 8 years ago to order flowers for her grandfather’s grave. I told her I would request our greenhouse worker to get it out the same day. There was a bit of a language barrier (I think English was her second language) she asked me to tell him it was from his family. I said our grounds team would be happy to put it out whether it was from family, friends or acquaintances. The woman corrected me by explaining she wanted the worker to tell her grandfather the flowers were from his family because they could not be there. Now think about how death and remembrance cross all man-made boundaries. This woman, who was Hmong, asked me in English (my primary language) to tell… our team member, whose primary language happened to be Spanish, to tell her grandfather that the flowers we were placing on his grave were from his family. I hope nothing was lost in translation!