Lilies Spread In Newhallville

Sandra Watts made it in the flower business — and, with a new bereavement parlor, her commercial dreams are blooming anew in Newhallville.

Watts owns Remember The Lilies Floral Shop & Services on Shelton Avenue, a business she started ten years ago because of her love of flowers and in memory of her mother. Now her vision of being something more than a flower shop has given birth to Lillie’s Place: A Place To Remember.

Her flower shop has moved into a storefront at the corner of Bassett Street and Shelton that used to be a laundromat. Her old shop, just a couple of doors down, has become a place for the bereaved to gather and remember their loved ones.

“This place and that place is the manifestation of a community supporting a local business,” she said. ​“That’s how it looks when we put our monies together and our support together — when I’m on time and my flowers are fresh, we give good pricing and I give alternative flower arrangements.

“This is how it looks. We are more than flowers, I don’t know who I am until the need comes in the door,” she added. ​“So my thing is I try to be a resource.”

A Gathering Place

In addition to owning the flower shop that she took over — the former Belton’s — Watts, a Pentecostal minister, also is a chaplain, and for some time the original shop had been doubling not only as a place for flower arranging, but as a place where grieving families could just come and release the pressure of losing a loved one.

Each of the windows of the shop have seats and pillows with the word ​“gather” on them. There are also a table and chairs where people can just sit and be. More and more families have been sent to the shop for that purpose. Watts wanted to create a space where they wouldn’t be further overwhelmed by the sometimes hectic nature of her business, so she asked her landlord if he could rent both spaces.

She also has added trees in the windows. One tree is a memory tree where people can come and have the name of a loved one who has passed added to the tree. In the other window is what she is calling the healing tree, where caregivers can add the names of people for prayer.

“This other space had been sitting here for 15 or 20 years,” she said of the old laundromat that is now her retail space and workshop. ​“I didn’t have enough space, and I thought, maybe I could call the landlord and negotiate.”

Her landlord asked her to put together a proposal, and he ultimately agreed to let her have both spaces. And before everything could be finalized, her landlord died, but his wife honored their original agreement and she got to work making the transition.

The old shop still contains many of her silk flower arrangements that showcase her work, and it will continue to do that. But her fresh flower business has moved into the new space. She said even during the transition it was important to her for grieving families — many who are sent to her by her mentor Howard K. Hill—to not feel overwhelmed by the changes going on in the space.

She said going forward, the space will also be a place where widows can com together and engage in flower therapy workshops.

Giving Back

On Saturday, a grand opening is planned for both places. In true Watts style it will be a community affair.

Since the death of her own mother and her business’ namesake, Lillie, Watts has used the anniversary of her mother’s death (which also happens to be Watts’ birthday) to do something for the community. That includes once having her children throw her a 50th birthday party and inviting 50 women who she said needed a night out. Last year it was an event honoring mothers who lost their sons to violence. She said her church family at the Kingdom Love Center in Hamden, where Bishop Frankie and Kim Carmichael are at the helm, encourages everyone in the flock to have an impact in their communities and having a mentor like Hill helped her get her start.

But during Saturday’s grand opening she will have people on site to do blood pressure readings, and to talk about sickle cell, breast cancer and HIV awareness.

She’s also partnered with Lincoln Bassett School to have an art project created by students installed and unveiled to the public, and she will have those involved with her business including the graphic artist that she mentors and even her delivery truck driver somehow involved in the celebration.

“Sometimes people like to tell others what they see as the problem and what they need to do,” she said. ​“But sometimes you are the answer. I’m the answer. If I wasn’t the answer it wouldn’t be on my heart to do. I’m the type of person if something needs to happen, I’m going to make it happen.”

And that includes giving back to the community that has helped Watts, whose shop was named small business of the year this year by Mayor Toni Harp, stay in business for 10 years. And yet another way she plans to do that is with the starting of a community garden around the corner on Bassett Street.

“As a role model to the community, I need to be telling people that at 60 you still can dream,” she said. ​“You need to make something happen. If you have life, breath and strength you are supposed to do something, mentor someone.