Last year one of the people who worked for the same company I did passed on. I never met the man. I did not know him at all. However I was under a lot of pressure to go to his funeral. I did not feel comfortable going to the funeral of someone I did not know. funeral flowers Funerals are for people to say goodbye and express their love. It is meant to be shared by others who are also saying their goodbyes. It is not a time for strangers to invade friends' and families' grief. I did, however, feel sending his family sympathy flowers was appropriate. So why send sympathy flowers I may not have known the man but I could understand what his family was going through. I sent the flowers as my way of expressing sympathy for their loss. In some ways, sending sympathy flowers is a corporate way of dealing with death. It is the socially acceptable way to express sympathy. When someone dies you send flowers because that is what you do. It is a way to acknowledge that a person has passed on. Many people send sympathy flowers because it is an easy way to express sympathy, support and sorrow. Many others send sympathy flowers because they care. It is a way to show that this person's death has affected them sympathy flowers. Sometimes I see sympathy flowers arranged along the roadside or a particular place. It tells me that someone valued another person who died there. They were loved and are missed. Giving flowers help us think about the person who passed and what they meant to us. It also shows others grieving that we share their pain. To be blunt the flowers are not for the deceased, but more for those grieving their passing. They are a way that we can show our feelings or our support for those grieving. When my grandmother died, many people sent sympathy flowers. There seemed to be more flowers than the room could hold. Many people sent the flowers because they could not be at the funeral. I was grateful that so many people took the time to send the flowers. In a way it was comforting knowing that so many others felt her loss. It was special as well because her funeral was awash in the flowers and colours she loved. I think she would have appreciated and enjoyed the flowers in life. Flowers were important to her and her funeral reflected that. The flowers helped us think of how much she meant to us. The joy we had being around her. The fun she had in her life. Many people had picked flowers that brought back specific memories for them. After the funeral we took the time to share those memories. I think it helped many of us accept her loss and start healing. There is really no necessity for one to be close to the deceased or grieving to send sympathy flowers. But if you do, you take away that much grief from the person and help them get over difficult times.