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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte-area nonprofit is brightening Valentine’s Day for those who lost their significant other.
Watch Love Grow is delivering free bouquets and goodie bags to widows and widowers in our state and beyond.
Ashley Manning is the founder of Watch Love Grow. Manning, who is also a flower shop owner, started this effort in 2021 after she made a bouquet for her son’s preschool teacher who was grieving the loss of her husband.
“She just looked at me and she said something along the lines of ‘this meant more than you’ll ever know, like you seeing me and seeing my pain,’” Manning said.
Lauren DiFrank is one of the dozens of volunteers who participated in the initiative this year, creating arrangements for widows and widowers at a Charlotte church Friday.
“You have no idea where this widow is on that journey. And so even the first year or the 15th year without their husband, this just makes such an impact, knowing that they’re not forgotten and just helps bring their spirits up,” DiFrank said.
The program has been a blessing to DiFrank, who lost her husband Rob to cancer in 2023.
“Valentine’s was always a big deal for my husband and I, but it’s definitely one where you’re seeing a lot of couples together. It’s tugging at emotionally,” DiFrank said.
They met in a cancer survivorship program in 2016, and both were cancer survivors at the time.
“We fell in love pretty instantly, and we got married a couple years later. We have a 6-year-old son who is and looks just like him,” DiFrank said.
She received a bouquet from Watch Love Grow two years in a row after his passing.
“I came home and saw this beautiful bouquet at my doorstep, just really meant a lot that other people in my life saw the need to nominate me, and I was able to receive flowers on Valentine’s Day,” DiFrank said.
According to Manning, the first year, the effort had 125 recipients.
“The first three years we worked out of my house, my driveway. It was beautiful. It was so beautiful,” Manning said.
This year, 2,000 recipients are expected to receive bouquets and gift bags with the help of donations and nearly 1,500 volunteers.
They’ll go to people in Charlotte, Denver (N.C.), Winston-Salem, Raleigh and eight other locations in other states.
“Can you believe how much it’s grown? It’s been such a blessing to me,” Manning told the crowd before they prayed and kicked off the volunteering opportunity.
She also said this initiative has taught her a lot.
“Pain is real and we all have pain in our lives. And just looking at somebody and saying, like, I see your pain and like you’re not forgotten today. It’s just such a beautiful blessing to them,” Manning said.
At the volunteering event, widows were recognized with boutonnieres — a symbol prompting connection.
“It’s so nice to know that they’re just people willing to just give you a hug and just know that that’s making you feel extra special today. Making connections with people who are here and hearing their stories as to why they’re here,” DiFrank said.
This Valentine’s Day blessing has not only helped the heartbroken, but Manning too.
“It has sustained me through really hard times. I’ve been through a lot in the last six years, and the same people that we served have come and served me,” Manning said.
DiFrank said she’s participating in the event as a way to give back. She plans to spend Valentine’s Day with her son.
The bouquets and gift bags for this Valentine’s Day Widow Outreach Project are prepared over the course of three days. It culminates with volunteers delivering the boxes with flowers and gift bags Saturday.
The group is also now gifting bouquets on Mother’s Day to mothers who lost a child.
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Estephany Escobar
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