Ilona Cole, Story 126

A Bouquet of Flowers

This has been a month filled with beautiful tulips which are my favorite flowers to bring into my home. Though I had never seen them put up like this before. I received them in big glass, cylinder vessels without any soil, just the bulbs in water.

The first ones my dearest friend and generous Marcie brought, when she visited me for a wonderful luncheon, she always brings flowers. The second big glass cylinder vessel I received from my dearest friends Karin and Karl, who moved to Chelan from here, but visit often. Those tulips are gorgeous, pure white with just a little soft green inside and at the tips of the pedals. They are quite large and have ruffles like parrot tulips.

Today, my sweet neighbor, Janet gave me another glass cylinder with beautiful lavender tulips. I have a wonderful spring garden of tulips here and I am blessed with wonderful friends. All this what surrounds me here brought to mind, how much flowers are able to communicate and speak for us so clearly.

It was December of 1953. I had gotten married to a wonderful American soldier in Germany. I worked for General Eisenhower at his command Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany and there met Halvor Legrand Cole, we fell in love and after we got permission from the state department and the army we got married in November.

Distance did not permit the parents of my Hal to be here for the wedding. Mrs. Cole therefore was not involved in planning or giving any input and opinion. So, to make a bridge between Hal’s parents and myself, I ordered one dozen long-stemmed, red roses for Mrs. Alice Cole to be delivered on Christmas eve day. That should break the ice. Hal was already back in the USA for Christmas and after I received my visa and entry permit the end of February 1954 I arrived in Seattle in the State of Washington where my Hal and his family resided.

Another important time, where I let the beauty of flowers speak, was Mrs. Alice Cole’s sixty- fifth birthday. It is such an important day, not necessarily a happy one, but I wanted to make it one, she would always remember the flowers and not the years. My Hal and I ordered sixty-five long-stemmed red roses for his mom to be delivered on that special day.

Hal’s mother truly enjoyed the gorgeous bouquet of roses, communicating love between two women when flowers are the language to use, rather than conversation. If not love, then respect and appreciation for the mother of the husband, because after all, if it were not for her, I would not have the greatest, most wonderful husband, her son, my Hal.

I always believed that beautiful flowers can speak and communicate what we, as people, are not able to convey. Flowers are a loving way to convey one’s feelings, flowers have no strong opinions, they do not care who it is who buys them, who takes them home or who admires them.

In a bouquet they all are equally beautiful, and the sender is loved for this deed.