Growing up with your parents owning a florist was pretty cool, except for the fact folks think you are wealthy, which was not the case. My Dad always said you're not taking over the business, because it's too hard and you can do better. He explained because you were dealing with perishables, paying designers to be creative, drivers to deliver, and always being concerned with your costs of goods sold, profitability was difficult. In his opinion, only restaurants were more difficult to operate.
Fast forward to 1976, my senior year at Old Dominion University. In the fall of '75, Dad started to have pain in his left hip, which was diagnosed as a circulation blockage--not caused by diabetes, just bad veins. The fix was to take a better vein from his calf and use that vein for a bypass for his affected hip. The bypass always failed, which required numerous more surgeries. Finally, the bypass worked but an open ulcer formed in his calf from all the surgeries. In July of '76 his vascular surgeons said they wanted to try one more surgery, and if it failed, amputation would be necessary. The surgery failed, and amputation was done. My Dad was actually glad, he was done with all the failed surgeries, and wanted to move on.
I was two months out of college and wasn't sure where I wanted to turn, getting my MBA was an option, but I wasn't ready. What was obvious to me was my Mom, who had been running the florist that year, needed to be home with my Dad while he recuperated. My two older sisters were married and raising their families, and I knew that's where they belonged. I told my parents I was glad to run the flower shop for a while, I felt it was the right thing to do. Even though my degree from ODU was in business, I had no clue about running the Florist or any other business, and I felt I was way in over my head! I knew this would be a challenge, but maybe subconsciously that's what I wanted.
So 1976 was the beginning of my life with flowers, and I wouldn't change a thing. I'll be adding more to my story, post-1976.
