Hanover florist makes wreaths to thank nurses, health care workers – The Patriot Ledger

HANOVER Brenda Maver's voice catches with emotion when she talks about the young nurses, "the rookies," just a year or two out of nursing school who are being pressed into action on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic in South Shore and Boston hospitals.

"I've known them since they were in kindergarten and they are all such nice girls out there working so hard, thrown into this crisis," she said.

Mayer is standing at the work table in her garage that is covered with ribbons as she begins another day of making simple wreaths to say "thank you" to area health care workers. By lunch, she was ready to deliver another half-dozen wreaths, placing them on doorknobs or doorsteps, in mail boxes, sometimes ringing the bell and leaving. She got the names from friends, families and through the grapevine.

For seven years, Maver has run The Wandering Florist business from her home. She thought this would be her biggest season ever. But soon after the coronavirus arrived, the first of her brides called to say there would be no wedding.

"I was so proud of her," Maver said. "She still got married and I was able to make the bouquets."

But soon, all Maver's time was spent on the phone talking to one client after another about cancelling or postponing events and orders. People were uncertain and scared.

"I was spiraling into a cyclone of sadness," she said.

Then, a friend called and asked her to "make something" for her sister, a health care worker, to say thank you and hang on her door. Within days, others called and 10 wreaths had gone out. Many wanted to help.

And so, an open hearted and expanding association of women in Hanover was formed, on its way to bringing messages of gratitude and hope to those among them who rise each day to work in hospitals and other health care settings, not knowing what the day will bring.

For several weeks, when nurses and other medical professionals arrive home after a stressful day, they have found one of Maver's wreaths, with vines, greens, a blue-checkered bow that reminds Maver of nurses and a red heart on a small white wooden board that says "thank you."

"This is about letting them know we are thinking of them," Maver said.

There is also a card that reads, "You've got our back so we've got yours."

So far, 25 wreaths have been delivered and Maver hopes to do another 50. They have all been sent to women, but Tuesday the first went out to a man, her nephew, Andrew Bober of Milton, who works as a nurse at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. His wife Danielle is also a nurse.

"The message should be that we all have something," said Maver,a 1984 graduate of Hanover High School. "Find out what it is and just give a little something back, so someone knows we were thinking of them."

Daryce Morris, whose sister Heather Reynolds is a cardiac nurse at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, received a wreath.

"Brenda was never one to sit still for long," Morris said. "And with a very generous spirit, she decided to surprise nurses and healthcare workers she knew in town with wreaths."

Maver and her husband, Don, live in the house where she grew up and have two daughters, a son in college, and many ties to the community.

She is self-taught as a floral designer, taking online classes and pushing herself with support from family.

The nurses who have received wreaths work at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth and in Boston, at Brigham and Women's, Beth Israel Deaconess and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Lately, Maver has been thinking of her letter carrier.

"I should put a little something out there in the mail box to thank him," she said.

For more information, visit thethewanderingflorist.com or The Wondering Florist Facebook page.

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Hanover florist makes wreaths to thank nurses, health care workers - The Patriot Ledger