“Could I pre-order sixty years’ worth of flower bouquets?”
About ten-year-old boy named Toby came by a flower shop alone and said that, after looking at the flowers for a while. At his words, I nearly burst with laughter as I had never received such an order and asked him why.
“My mother is forty years old now and she may live until a hundred years of age. So I would like to pre-order sixty years’ worth of flowers.”
Touched at his pure heart, I promised I would and said that thirty dollars were enough for the total cost of flower bouquets. The next day, Toby came again and drew a portrait of me out of gratitude. I thought he was a unique child.
Two months later, on the promised date, I went to Toby’s house for a flower delivery. A woman who appeared to be Toby’s mother came out when I pressed the doorbell. I handed her the flower bouquet and said that her son had ordered it. Then, she was very startled and began to weep. And she said Toby died of leukemia. Last year, Toby gave Mom a flower bouquet on her birthday and she told him that she was the happiest mother in the world. He then promised to get her flowers on her birthday from then on.
“Please deliver pretty flowers to my mother this year, next year, and the coming years until the 60th year!” Toby got out of the shop after a few times of such earnest request. I will surely grant his last wish.
* This is based on the article introduced in Good Times on November 1, 2017.