Doctor Eleanor Love is living up to her last name and her vocation. The medical student has found a way to bring a smile to her patients and a second life to leftover wedding items.
Meet The Simple Sunflower, the project that Eleanor founded while attending VCU School of Medicine. The act is simple, contacting wedding venues and events to use their remaining flowers as bouquets for patients.
The 27-year-old has attended various weddings since the project’s conception. Even though Eleanor did not know the members of the events, she always had one goal in mind: to repurpose.
The once thought to be discarded flowers around the Richmond, Virginia area, are now given a second purpose: to cheer up patients in the hospitals. Eleanor, as a medical provider, knows that sometimes patients get lonely.
And that sometimes, all that you need to bring a smile to your face is a bouquet of flowers. Before starting medical school, Eleanor has worked at a flower shop.
Here she found out that flowers and plants can facilitate a patient’s recovery. Eleanor and The Simple Sunflower project shine a brand-new light on palliative care through the bouquet of flowers.
Connie Melzers, a 68-year-old patient who received Eleanor’s bouquets, said she broke down and cried. “When you’re there six to eight weeks, it’s a big deal.” Of the experience, Eleanor has this to say, “You connect with [patients] on a different level.”
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