A florist put bouquets on thousands of hospital workers’ cars

We all want to express our gratitude to the frontline healthcare workers looking after COVID-19 patients, often under very difficult conditions in which they themselves are at risk. One French woman has found the perfect way to do just that, using her own profession as a florist.

Murielle Marcenac, who runs a floral shop called Marcenac Fleurs in Saint-Estève, recently gave all the beautiful flowers she had in her store to local hospital workers when faced with new public health restrictions that would have meant them going to waste. When Marcenac was forced to temporarily close her business, she took her bouquets and arrangements around to hospital parking lots in the area and put them on the cars as a way to say thank you (or “merci”) for what they’re doing for their community.

Marcenac shared some pictures of her sweet gestures on her Facebook page. This picture was taken at the hospital in nearby Perpignan, according to her caption.

After the kindly 38-year-old florist did the same thing at the Centre Hospitalier de Carcassonne, another medical center in the south of France, the hospital posted a few images of Marcenac in action on their own Facebook page.

As you can see, she wasn’t just putting loose flowers out — which would have been nice enough — she was placing decorative arrangements on the cars of the beleaguered healthcare workers.

Although the idea was hers, Marcenac wasn’t alone in pulling off her large-scale good deed.

She recruited a team to help her leave floral gifts for even more hospital workers once she got started, and between them they managed to donate almost 2,000 bouquets across several hospitals!

Marcenac’s motivation was simple: she wanted to make the workers smile.

“I had to make a decision, and I didn’t want to waste the flowers,” she told England’s Metro newspaper. “Instead of crying, I told myself that we had to make people smile, especially at times like these.”

“The emotion of the people warmed my heart,” she added. “Positivity generates positivity. I preferred to focus on a few positive things rather than crying. I had already bought the merchandise for my orders for the week. I didn’t want to waste or throw them away.”

She further told Metro that she plans to send the rest of her unused flowers to hospice workers in the area.

“They need it, we have to support each other at times like these and not get angry.”