Kids & Family

In This Town, Random Acts of Kindness Are Blooming All Over

A florist is leaving "lonely bouquets" around town, simply for the joy of brightening the days of those who find them.

Kris Carian-Case doesn’t know how many days she’s brightened.

Keeping track of the number and names of people who smiled isn’t the point behind the dozens of colorful “lonely bouquets” that have been left around Troy for strangers to pick up, take home or share with someone who’s in the throes of a rough spell.

Nor is the random gesture of kindness and goodwill a gimmicky marketing trick to build awareness of Carian-Case’s two floral shops, Della’s Maple Lane Florist and Accent Florist.

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She doesn’t expect anything in return, though she’s received plenty.

“Just joy,” she said, describing the big bundle of delight she’s received in return for her generosity. “That’s more important than anything. There’s no motivation other than knowing that I just made that person’s day, or that someone smiled.”

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And they have smiled, three, four and many times over, passing their enchantment along in ways she might not have expected.

The “lonely floral bouquets” come with a message and the url for the floral shop’s Facebook page, where messages are encouraged:

“Adopt me, please. I’m all alone and looking for a new home. Perhaps I can live with you or a loved one? Please take me. Our flower friends at Della’s Maple Lane Florist would love to hear from us and find out where we ended up.”

   "Joy ... that's more important than anything."

The bouquets aren’t fashioned with droopy daisies and withering carnations rejected by the designers at her shops, either. They feature roses, tropical Bird of Paradise flowers and other premium blooms that signal to the recipients that they’re special and deserve to be treated as such.

How awesome is that?

It’s seriously awesome, Detreia Watson Kiser posted on the Della’s Maple Lane Florist Facebook page. “I love how you’re randomly putting smiles on faces of people that didn’t even expect it,” she wrote.

The recipients have included Diane DuCharme Dippoliti, who is from New Hudson and found a bouquet at a business meeting at Panera Bread in Troy.

“A lady walked in and put the bouquet of flowers on an empty table near me, and others,” she posted. “I was curious about the flowers and got up and read the message. Lucky for me! The flowers have found a home on my kitchen island. Thank you very much for brightening my day.”

Someone else wrote:

“I picked up the bouquet at Nordstrom Rack. What a wonderful surprise! I planned on giving it to someone special – many names ran through my mind. Because God has blessed me with a wonderful family and many wonderful friends, the decision was not an easy one.

“The Lonely Bouquet is not lonely anymore it is residing in Sterling Heights with a neighbor who has recently taken care of watering my plant and getting my mail for me while I was on vacation. He very much appreciated the bouquet! Thank you so much. What a great idea!”

Tell Us:

  • Were you the recipient of a random act of kindness? Have you committed a random act just to make someone smile? What is it?

Carian-Case’s customers aren’t surprised by her infectious altruism.

“She’s such a great, amazing person and she gives off a great vibe,” said Christina Kuefler, who got wind of the lonely bouquet giveaway and wanted to be part of it. “She does it because she’s a kind person, and she wants genuinely wants people to be nice to each other.

“She’s done a ton of stuff for my Girl Scout troop,” Kuefler said, “and she’s been doing this kind of thing for years. Once, she asked people to submit names of people who were having a bad day, and she’d pick one for a flower delivery.”

Kuefler left one bouquet near a mail delivery truck. The carrier looked at it, then presented the bouquet to her. “You look like a mom who needs some flowers,” Kuefler recalled him saying.

“It really does come back,” she said. “I like to see the good go forward. I think ‘pay it forward” is the best thing that ever happened life.”

When possible, Kuefler takes the youngest of her children – she and husband, Ed, are the parents seven – along on deliveries. It’s one more teaching moment to expose them to doing things for others simply because it’s the right thing to do.

“There used to be a Kmart at 15 Mile and Livernois, where a little homeless man would always be. We called him Santa Claus, because he had the whitest hair and the deepest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. The first time we approached him, he pulled away. I said, ‘No, no. It’s food. I can’t buy you a house, but if I can afford to go to McDonald’s, I can afford to buy you a cheeseburger.’ The Kmart is gone now, and I don’t know what happened to him. I hope he’s OK, and I hope my kids learned to be kind to kind to others.”

The lesson is an important one, Kuefler said, illustrating that “it doesn’t matter how much money you have; what matters is how you treat people.”

The lessons seem to be taking root. Her 5-year-old opens doors for people at the stores where she leaves the floral bouquets. When her youngest gets a new toy, he gives one to charity.

“I do think they get it,” Kuefler said.

The smile comes full circle, planting itself on Carian-Case’s face, delivering one of those unexpected rewards. She not only brightened someone else’s day, she set an example about how people should treat others.

“The world is kind of a drag sometimes, and I don’t want it to be.” she said. “I want it to be nicer. We need to be nice to the drive-through attendant, or to the clerk, and just to people in general.”

Carian-Case plans to continue leaving lonely bouquets around town through the end of the month.

And then she will dream up something else to make people smile.

“She does things like this all the time,” said Mattea Aquino, who works part-time in one of the flower shops. “People are always rushing and passing by people, and something like this puts a smile on their faces.”


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