The Author Guy Blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve

 19th July 2024

Hello out there,

Welcome back. I want to share an idea with you. Something with which you may already be familiar;

perhaps not. It falls neatly into the “it’s the little things that count” category and could make a huge

impact in the life of someone near and dear to you.

My father outlived my mother by over twenty years, his last two years in his own home in the company of

two live-in caregivers – a wonderful mother and daughter team. And during those last two years, my wife

and I arranged for something to help since we lived rather far away. We contracted with a national

company (there are many to choose from) who delivered a different arrangement of fresh-cut flowers to

my father at the beginning of every month.

What was the “huge impact?” Well, from memory, at least three things. First, the flowers often remained

fresh for more than two weeks, lessening the wait time until the next delivery. Second, the caregivers told

us it gave my father something meaningful to look forward to. He kept track of the delivery dates each

month on his calendar. And third, he was constantly reminded we were thinking of him even when we

couldn’t be with him.

My father left us January 18, 2003. Almost twenty years later, one of my fraternity pledge brothers (there

were twenty-four of us back in 1969) was at home with round-the-clock hospice care, and our “band of

brothers” arranged for flowers to be delivered every month until he passed away eight months after the

deliveries began. The day of the first delivery, JD’s wife let us know how much the gesture meant to him.

Perhaps you can think of someone in your life deserving of this relatively inexpensive and deeply

impactful gesture.

Until next week … Vaya con Dios

Larry B. Gildersleeve