Grief & healing: The surprising cheerfulness of artificial flowers

I’ve always had a bias against artificial flowers. And I’ve always planted my patio with real red geraniums, herbs, marigolds, gerbera daisies and red salvia to attract hummingbirds.

And my dear husband, Baheej, never ever used or brought anything except real flowers for the garden, patio or in the house. So this reinforced my bias against artificial flowers. And that stuck with me because of that — until just recently.

Well, this summer there was a long stretch of very hot and dry weather during which, for various reasons, I wasn’t able to keep up with watering. So I lost many flowers, especially on my patio.

I was telling my sister, Mary, about it and she mentioned some all-weather (artificial) flowers she uses on her front patio where she does not have a watering faucet.

She said she had a lot of extra bunches not even unwrapped and she would send them to me. And she did.

The upshot of this — they arrived and are beautiful. I “planted” them in my empty pots, which were already filled with soil.

Turns out they are super cheerful and pretty. Really. So I’m rethinking all of this.

It remind me of a couple years after Baheej died and I finally bought an artificial Christmas tree. I couldn’t handle a live tree by myself, so had to compromise. Surprise, surprise. Once decorated, it’s beautiful.

The point is: It’s yet another reminder we do need to be open to change. I’m happy with my artificial Christmas tree and patio flowers.

Right now the flowers are just sitting by the pots of real flowers. They blend in fine. I have a feeling Baheej understands and approves. With the help of my sister, I’ve just ordered more — fall colors, so they will carry me into the next season.

• Susan Anderson-Khleif of Sleepy Hollow has a doctorate in family sociology from Harvard, taught at Wellesley College and is a retired Motorola executive. Contact her at sakhleif@aol.com.