Published Feb 27, 2020

Mystery on the Cancer Ward: Who Has Been Sending Flowers For The Past 12 Years? Nurses Inspired By Kindness

When the mystery flowers stopped coming this month, the hospital reached out to the florist, hoping to bring them back.

Details

For the past twelve years, flowers have been delivered to Mission Hospital’s 9th-floor oncology ward every Monday, like clockwork. But nurses have no idea who’s sending the weekly bouquet.

Each week, they give the “Monday Flowers” to a patient who needs some cheering up. Says nurse Karina Saunders,” "Sometimes I'll tell them about the flowers or sometimes I'll just say, 'you had a person thinking of you.'"

But Why Did They Stop Coming?

But the mystery continued on February 18th, according to ABC15 News when the flowers stopped coming. The florist that sends them is going out of business and the nurses think the sender may not know. Mission Hospital officials are trying to get in contact with the anonymous sender through the florist and hope they can get the flowers back. In the meantime, the nurses have have years to wonder who the mystery sender might be.

A Husband Whose Wife Passed Away?

The 'Monday Flowers' mystery was recently shared in a Facebook post by Alvina Cozzarelli, a hospital employee who says they have been delivered from ‘Your House of Flowers' with no name or card.

"Our manager doesn't know for sure, " Cozzarelli writes, "but he thinks they are sent from a man whose wife passed away on our unit."

Bringing Joy to Someone Going Through a Hard Time

"I've made up so many stories in my head about this person," she speculates in her post,

"Like maybe he bought his wife flowers every week and when she died he didn't know where to send them so he just sent them to the place where she passed away.

"Or maybe, someone brought her flowers when she was in the hospital and it made her so happy that he wanted to bring that same joy to another person going through a hard time."

"Every Monday, I'm Inspired"

The identity of the flower-sender remains a mystery, but Cozzarelli thought this was a random act of kindness worth sharing with a wider audience.

"I don't think we'll ever know the whole story," she added, "but I do know that I'm sincerely grateful for people like this kind, anonymous human. "And every Monday I'm inspired to be kind to strangers every chance I get.'

SurvivorNet has seen many acts of kindness extended toward patients going through treatment for cancer (see related links in this article) but the 'Monday Flowers' is among the few that remains a mystery — and a tradition the nurses hope will continue.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

Constance Costas is a writer for SurvivorNet.