Sixteen-year-old Nora Zeigler never met her great-grandmother Hancel Mills. But on Saturday, Zeigler will receive a bouquet of flowers from her.
Zeigler’s grandfather, Winfred Stevens, was recently cleaning out some papers belonging to his late wife, Patricia, who died in 2023. In them, he found a $25 gift certificate to Lougee & Frederick’s Florist that Mills, Patricia’s mother, gave the couple for their anniversary in May 1997. It had an expiration date of Sept. 1, 1997.
When Stevens’ daughter, Kassie Stevens, learned about the gift certificate, she called the flower shop, where she’s a long-time customer.
The gift card was issued before Rhoda Burke bought the business but as soon as she heard about the story behind it, she said the shop would honor it.
“There was zero hesitation behind it,” Burke said.
The good deed by a Bangor business will now unite generations of a family who never got the chance to meet with a bouquet of “flowers from beyond,” as Kassie Stevens called them.
Mills loved fresh flowers, something she passed on to Stevens. The flowers will be given to Stevens’ daughter, Zeigler, who returns from leadership training at Camp Jordan on Saturday.
The vibrant pink and yellow flowers were beautiful, Stevens said. She tries to give her daughter flowers when she returns from camp every year.
Stevens brought a blueberry pie from Frank’s Bake Shop & Catering for Burke and her employees because she wanted to pay it forward to the florist staff and also support another business on State Street.
“One good turn deserves another,” Stevens said.
Now that the gift certificate has returned to the shop, Burke said she will frame it and hang it on the wall.
In the years since the certificate was issued, Maine law has changed, outlawing expiration dates on gift cards.