A Memory of Violets

For Mum—the diamond glints on snow

The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated.

—George Bernard Shaw,
Pygmalion,
1912

For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands.

—Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market,” 1862

Not what we have, but what we use;
Not what we see, but what we choose—
These are the things that mar or bless
The sum of human happiness.

—Clarence Urmy, “The Things That Count,” inscribed at Woodbridge Chapel in memory of John Groom, founder of the Watercress and Flower Girls' Mission