Flowers bring grins to seniors

By Elisa Glushefski

Published: July 22, 2008

Maurine Finnegan, who is less than two months away from her 101st birthday, was sitting in her wheelchair near the window in her bedroom at the Westminster at Lake Ridge health center when Carol Kalbfleisch came through the door with an arrangement of carnations and two red roses.

"That's heavy," Finnegan said after she was handed flowers arranged in a bright yellow smiley face mug. "They'll make me smile all day."

The flowers were placed on the table at the end of her bed. Later, Finnegan said she'd probably leave them right where they were.

" 'Cause I can see them from everywhere in the room," she said.

Kalbfleisch and her husband, Larry Kalbfleisch, walked down the halls of the health center, handing out bouquets of flowers in yellow smiley face mugs.

The couple's shop, A Floral Affair, gave out a total of 100 arrangements at Westminster and at Potomac Hospital as a part of Teleflora's "Make Someone Smile Week" program.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect for William Cobun, who celebrated his 93rd birthday Tuesday.

After he was handed his flowers, the roomful of people broke into "Happy

Birthday."

This was the second year flowers were given to Westminster at Lake Ridge through the program, said Laura Krauss, assistant activities director at the facility's nursing center.

And the flowers have never failed at brining smiles to the faces of residents and patients.

Oftentimes, she said, the flowers serve as pleasant reminders of the gardens they used to have or plants they would keep in their houses.

"I think it's a great thing," she said.

Staff writer Elisa Glushefski can be reached at 703-878-8062.