Flowers Doing Their Work

April 20, 2007— -- Todd Dobbins has put out calls to Calilfornia, Florida and South America to get what he needs to do his part in helping the Virginia Tech community through its grieving -- flowers. Especially orange and maroon flowers, the colors of the Virginia Tech Hokies.

In the aftermath of the tragic shooting, Virginia Tech has announced that Norris Hall, the building where 30 of the students were killed, will be closed for the remainder of this semester. The healing will take much longer than that, but there are already signs of how this community will cope. And one sign can be found at Todd Dobbins' shop.

Dobbins is a guy with a truck, but he's also, in an odd way, now a guy with a sudden supporting role in the Virginia Tech aftermath. His truck is a flower truck, and he is the flower guy. Actually, he's a flower farmer and wholesaler who supplies a string of mom-and-pop flower stores, and right now, this is, in floral terms, an emergency.

Shops such as Karen Handel's Best Wishes, which sits just outside the Virginia Tech campus, have been working at full capacity since Monday.

Handel said she's getting calls from "well wishers from all over."

Orders are coming in from across the country, some from celebrities, somefrom other universities, some from parents whose kids were nowhere nearthe shootings. They just wanted their children to know that they wereloved, and Handel helps them do it.

"It's just been very, very busy, she said. "People just wanting to do something … something that would make people in the area feel better. So, that's kind of what we're dealing with."

They may be strangers who keep phoning in to place an order, butevery conversation inevitably turns to the crime. And if you talk to Handel, you can see how it's affecting her.

"This is … the calling that God gives each of us is to … help other people that are hurting too."

In the flower shops in the area, every customer is now somehow connected.

A French professor came into the store to buy flowers. The night before she had visited the widow of one of her fellow professors who was murdered.

"I wanted to send flowers to the families of my colleagues," she said. "There was the two in my department."

And then there was Sandy, a minister, who said he's been talking and praying with members of his congregation, several of whom are international students.

"Our church and our folks are still very shocked and stunned and we appreciate calls from around the country and around the world, and we do invite people to pray for us and pray for our international community, too; they may be feeling especially vulnerable," he said.

Todd Dobbins' wife said she's been watching the news nonstop, except when the phone rings with yet another order, which is about every few minutes.

"One lady called this morning, and she said, 'I don't want anything too, like, spirited, you know?" she explained.

Orange and maroon are, of course, Virginia Tech's colors, which is why there is a shortage of flowers in those colors now.

"Orange and maroon are traditionally fall flowers," Dobbins explained.

Orange and maroon, and white and purple, and rose and yellow. A fewweeks from now, people here may be sending bouquetsto celebrate Mother's Day or maybe graduation. But for now, it is a timefor grief and for flowers -- living things, sent to honor the dead and give solace to the living.