Doctor Eleanor Love is preserving both her last name and her line of work. The medical student has found a way to make her patients happy and give used wedding decorations a new use.
Introducing the project Eleanor started at the VCU School of Medicine, The Simple Sunflower. It only requires one simple step: asking wedding venues and other events to donate their leftover flowers for patient bouquets.
The 27-year-old has attended a large number of weddings since the project began. Eleanor didn’t know any of the people involved in the activities, but she was constantly thinking of ways to repurpose.
Flowers that were once considered to be discarded in the Richmond, Virginia, area now have a second use: cheering up hospital patients. As a medical professional, Eleanor is aware that lonely patients exist.
Furthermore, you sometimes only need a bouquet of flowers to bring a smile to your face. Earlier than starting medical school, Eleanor had experience working in a flower shop.
Here, she discovered that flowers and plants can promote a patient’s recovery. Eleanor and The Simple Sunflower project provided new insight into palliative care through the floral arrangement.
Connie Melzers, a 68-year-old patient, received Eleanor’s flowers and reported that she cried and sobbed. When you stay there for six to eight weeks, it’s a big deal. Eleanor says this about the experience: “You have a different kind of connection with [patients]. “.
