Pasco couple learns secret of flower deliveries

Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009

Pasco couple learns secret of flower deliveries
By Pratik Joshi, Herald staff writer

Imagine getting flowers with a note to brighten your day, week after week, not knowing who sent them.

When Sandra Spivey of Pasco got a beautiful flower arrangement for the first time on May 15, she and her husband Bob thought the blossoms were from a relative or friend.

When another bouquet came the next Friday, the couple started calling family from Alaska to Hawaii to Nebraska to personally thank them.

Sandra Spivey, who has been battling cancer for two years, was emotionally touched and surprised by the flowers.

So when the Lucky Flowers delivery truck pulled up again May 29, Bob Spivey called the Pasco flower shop to do some sleuthing.

"They wouldn't tell me who was sending the flowers," he said.

He told a store employee that he would be content if he could find out which state the unknown benefactor lived in.

The Hanford worker said he was put on hold for a long time before an employee revealed the bouquets came courtesy of the flower store.

Bob Spivey had once gone to the store to buy flowers for his sister who had lost her husband to cancer, and he ended up sharing his wife's story.

What he didn't know was that his story touched a chord with Melissa Behen, co-owner of the Road 68 business.

A few years ago, Behen sent flowers to her best friend's mother-in-law in North Carolina. She had cancer and Behen wanted to cheer her up.

Behen said she wanted to do the same again.

So she looked up the Spiveys' address and made sure fresh arrangements were delivered there each Friday.

It's a small gesture that can brighten somebody's day, she said.

When Bob Spivey found out, he thanked her. "He even brought apple cider for us. Tipped our driver and ordered us a pizza," Behen said.

"Bob wanted to let them know they could stop," said Sandra Spivey, a Richland school teacher who wants to go back to work in February after finishing chemotherapy.

But the flowers kept coming, she said. Each time, it's a different and unique arrangement, she said, adding it makes them feel special.