#SympathyFlowers in Oakville, in the nick of time.

Your service is truly remarkable Frank. Thank you so much.

Nice. An unsolicited flower testimonial...my favourite kind.

The comments were from an Executive Assistant for a former CEO of a large Canadian coffee franchise (no, I'm not going to name drop)!

It wasn't the first time the customer had ordered, and the orders had always been for a sizable amount.

But this one was going to be tough.

The order came in at 4:50pm on Friday afternoon. 10 minutes to closing for most flower shops.

It didn't come in by phone, it came through online instead. For a funeral service for the following item:

Simon Says Roses SSR5-3808

Sympathy flowers are different than flowers for a birthday or anniversary. They have to be there before a set time, or forget it. Deliver when the service has already begun, and you might as well take the flowers back to the store.

 We needed flower delivery in Oakville before 11:00am on Saturday morning.

And of course this wasn't a few flowers that could be arranged in a vase. It was a sympathy floral spray on an easel, and that's a bit more complicated. 

We had to make the sure that enough red & white carnations, asters, & pom poms were available, enough Oasis foam saturated with water & flower food, the easel spray was in stock, the designer had free time to construct the arrangement on short notice, and the delivery service willing to do a rush delivery first thing in the morning.

...and past experience has taught us that there are only two florists in Oakville that we could trust with this flower delivery. 

So there was no way that I was going to send this order without talking to the flower store owner, but I knew the shops would be closing soon. What's a guy to do, but...

Drop everything, and get on the phone!

1. The first shop had no red & white flowers left of any type going into the weekend, but
2. The second shop could do it!

That's not the end of the story, though. According to the delivery service, they delivered this arrangement to the church but a family member told them to take it to the funeral home where it will be transported to the church.

Did they get it there on time? Yes, at 10:47am (13 minutes to spare).

Sometimes so many things have to come together that it seems like a miracle.

Or as the customer said...remarkable.