Eleanor Love attended many weddings as a medical student in Richmond, Virginia. It didn’t matter that she never really knew the bride and groom as she was there for the leftover flowers.

The 27-year-old takes these discarded flowers and repurposes them so she can give them as gifts to patients in hospitals. It gets lonely in there and Love just wants to cheer them up.

68-year-old Connie Melzers was a patient at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center where she was recovering from a heart condition.

“I just broke down and I cried,” she recalled. “When you’re there six to eight weeks, it’s a big deal.”

A graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Eleanor is doing a general residency at Riverside Regional Medical Center. It was her interaction with patients that gave her the idea.

Love wanted to help ease patients’ suffering but she didn’t know how else to go about it. She was just a medical student at the time.

Love launched The Simple Sunflower getting others to join her project in giving flowers to patients at VCU Medical Center.

Eleanor reached out to florists and wedding venues to know where weddings were to be held, then she would ask if they had plans for their flowers after the event. They never did.

There are eight volunteers assigned per wedding. They gather up the flowers then rearrange them in to vases for each patient.

The Simple Sunflower was on a roll. They could bring anywhere from twenty to forty flowers to patients on Mondays. Other volunteers would donate flowers or vases. Some even give cash!

Then word got out and people began to reach out to Eleanor and her team.

Eleanor’s love affair with flowers started when she was just a kid. Her father took her to a store where she got sunflower seeds and planted them. That’s where she got the name from.

Eleanor took some time to work in a flower shop before entering medical school. She read and did her research learning that flowers and plants help patients recover quickly.

Scientists did discover that flowers and plants help ease pain, anxiety, and fatigue. There really is something about being surrounded by nature.

“Offering flowers to our patients provides the same benefit,” the doctor said. “Ultimately, that saves the hospital money if the patient doesn’t need that much pain medicine, or even if the patient can leave the hospital a day earlier.”

When Eleanor and The Simple Sunflower team repurpose flowers, they prioritize patients in palliative care.

“Being able to help deliver the flowers to those patients is very meaningful because you just see those patients’ faces light up,” she said. “You connect with them on a different level.”

This simple project has brought smiles to countless patients. Beautiful flowers coupled with smiling faces are powerful medicines we should take more advantage of!

Watch the video below for more on Eleanor’s amazing idea!

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Source: YouTube, My Positive Ouitlook